Site looks good in Firefox, but OMG on IE

29 replies
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I have a mac with firefox and safari, my new webdesign looks great on those browsers,

but IE is another story.

Can anyone help me out?
#css #firefox #good #internet explorer #omg #site
  • Profile picture of the author ptpasta
    IE has a funny way to interpret code.

    There are some themes/CSS files already 'tweaked' to be seen correctly (or to enable websites to be seen) with IE, so you could look for them and adapt the CSS code to your theme.
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    • Profile picture of the author soliddesign
      I wouldn't bother coding for IE6. It's market share is dropping dramatically by the day. For 7 and 8, there are tweaks/fixes to troubleshoot. The best thing to do is to learn what code is not compatible, and avoid using it from the start on future projects. IE7 and IE8 are also bad with transparent pngs, but there's fixes.
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      • Profile picture of the author donnygraives
        Originally Posted by soliddesign View Post

        I wouldn't bother coding for IE6. It's market share is dropping dramatically by the day. For 7 and 8, there are tweaks/fixes to troubleshoot. The best thing to do is to learn what code is not compatible, and avoid using it from the start on future projects. IE7 and IE8 are also bad with transparent pngs, but there's fixes.
        I agree. IE6 is thankfully just about dead. 7 & 8 do have some quirks but they shouldn't look as bad as 6. If you're on a mac there are some programs out there like IE Tester that can show you what your site will look like in multiple versions of IE.
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  • Profile picture of the author techntuts
    If you are worring with IE6 then no one can help. Stop coding for IE6, its the worst browser. You can start thinking from IE7 and above.

    And make sure you use pixels instead of EM's in your style sheet...
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    • Profile picture of the author Shelle-K
      IE gives me a headache! I really wish we could just get rid of it
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  • Profile picture of the author fazlerocks
    Hi.

    IE has been a headache for almost all the webmasters/designers. You can try out designing another stylesheet for IE7 onwards. Styling for IE6 will take away 90% of your time so just ignore it.
    Best Wishes
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    • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
      There is a little snippet of code you can put in your pages that tells the page to use an alternate stylesheet for IE6 and then you just put that alternate stylesheet with your other stylesheet.

      I don't remember the snippet of code, I always have to go look it up. When you start Googling it it is related to IE/css issues.
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  • Profile picture of the author hari12345
    ahh i hate IE6.....Everytime i look my sites created using CSS in IE6 it may be the worst thing.....i don't know why still some are using IE6....for me mozilla is best......whenever i took a web designing project i will clearly tell my client that i will not design for IE6....
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  • Profile picture of the author bogdanf
    IE frustrates me a lot.
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  • Profile picture of the author aokiji1
    IE actually does not support some of the plugins and CSS codes
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  • Profile picture of the author co
    IE is not getting it right.I get frustrated at times
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    • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
      Complaining about IE is like living in Arizona and complaining that the air is too dry. Most of your visitors use IE probably something like 80% of everyone on the internet uses IE. IE is the norm not the exception. So FF and other browsers render the markup and CSS better, fine they are the exception not the norm. You should design for IE and just be happy that there are a few people out there that have better browsers. If it works in IE then it will work in anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author 723Media
    I have to agree and disagree with ronc0011.

    I agree that complaining about IE isn't a solution. IE has a big user base.

    I disagree that IE holds the majority share of browser use when it's actually Firefox that does. Firefox holds a little over 40%.

    You should also design for a standards based browser first (FF, Safari, etc) then dsign for IE.

    Unfortunately, IE isn't standards (CSS) compliant so you do have to do some tricks to get your design to look good in all browsers.

    With that being said, I'll take a look at your site in IE and see what's wrong and come back with some advice.
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    • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
      Originally Posted by 723Media View Post

      I have to agree and disagree with ronc0011.

      I agree that complaining about IE isn't a solution. IE has a big user base.

      I disagree that IE holds the majority share of browser use when it's actually Firefox that does. Firefox holds a little over 40%.

      You should also design for a standards based browser first (FF, Safari, etc) then dsign for IE.

      Unfortunately, IE isn't standards (CSS) compliant so you do have to do some tricks to get your design to look good in all browsers.

      With that being said, I'll take a look at your site in IE and see what's wrong and come back with some advice.
      I think if you look at those statistics a bit closer you will find that the wording is a bit misleading. I've worked in the I.T. industry for many years and I can tell you from first hand experience that most people use IE. I've been out there amongst em. Most of them barely know how to check their email much less choose, download and install a different browser. Those stats you reference typically give a qualifier, something to the effect that FF and Safari are preferred amongst designers, or some other such caveat.
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      • Profile picture of the author L41db4ck
        Originally Posted by ronc0011 View Post

        I think if you look at those statistics a bit closer you will find that the wording is a bit misleading. I've worked in the I.T. industry for many years and I can tell you from first hand experience that most people use IE. I've been out there amongst em. Most of them barely know how to check their email much less choose, download and install a different browser. Those stats you reference typically give a qualifier, something to the effect that FF and Safari are preferred amongst designers, or some other such caveat.
        Stats from my websites are like...IE 50% FF 20%
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      • Profile picture of the author 723Media
        Taking a look at the W3C stats rating here - Browser Statistics, it doesn't have a qualifier attached.

        Looking at my own analytics across several sites, Firefox is typically 50% and up.

        I've been in the IT industry for quite some time as well, both as a developer and a designer and with the exception of government clients, IE has been in the lower percentage of users for the past few years.

        Stats aside though, it is good practice to design for standards first, then backtrack for IE.

        With IE6 now being a defunct application, it's a little easier to do so.
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      • Profile picture of the author scorpio9
        The BEST way to know for your site is by looking at your visitor stats. If you use cPanel or Plesk you can enable Awstats, it is an excellent script that will give you information such as the user's browser, screen resolution, operating system etc. when you know this information you can code for the most popular browser and resolution used by YOUR visitors.

        In any case when designing you should test the design using different browsers, if you go to this site Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots and eneter you URL they will take a snapshot of the website and present an image rendered in up to 60 different browsers (just select the few you need!)

        Lee

        Originally Posted by ronc0011 View Post

        I think if you look at those statistics a bit closer you will find that the wording is a bit misleading. I've worked in the I.T. industry for many years and I can tell you from first hand experience that most people use IE. I've been out there amongst em. Most of them barely know how to check their email much less choose, download and install a different browser. Those stats you reference typically give a qualifier, something to the effect that FF and Safari are preferred amongst designers, or some other such caveat.
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        • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
          You might find this interesting. And frankly I stills think they are missing a lot of users.

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_s...f_web_browsers

          I didn't do a lot of looking to find this but I'm thinking it is representative of what you will probably find across the board.
          I had this conversation with someone else who cited stats he had found online and after reading the stats I found that they did in fact make the afore mentioned qualifiers. In fact the page he referenced went on to explain how the data omitted several factors and that likely the percentage of IE users was probably closer to 70 or 80 percent.
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  • Profile picture of the author 723Media
    I assumed it was the site in your signature but that one looks fine in both. What site are you talking about?
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  • Profile picture of the author opiz2012
    IE6 always some strange question, can generally be resolved by modifying the CSS, but not all problems can be so short, IE6 headache.
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  • Profile picture of the author indianbill007
    Yes, lots of issues with IE. Initially we need to check for css. PM me your site details. Let me check
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    • Profile picture of the author sannu123
      Good post,,Nice sharing.....Thanks for this very helpful and innovative information in this site,,, i really appreciate. Keep it up......
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbob
    A lot of the clients I work for are corporates who are still running IE6, so I have no choice but to code for it... and as any developer will tell you, it sucks.

    For my own websites/personal clients, I don't code for IE6. As a developer I feel I have a duty to no longer support it, so anyone who wants to see my creations properly has to use a more modern browser.

    But you must make sure your sites look ok across all the other browsers. If you're building your own design from scratch, try using Blueprint: A CSS Framework | Spend your time innovating, not replicating as a base - provided you know how to set up a site without tables it'll speed things up no end and virtually guarantee cross-browser compatability.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daave
    I think you should start using some other browser, as if IE is not providing good results then you should not be using it.
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  • Profile picture of the author hari12345
    I prefer firefox its the best browser for me.....Mostly i will be designing using CSS that's why i don't use IE
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  • Profile picture of the author smoh
    I use the w3 validator when building my websites. If you've already built it and it's screwed up, then it may take a while to fix it. Make sure all your divs are closed. Firefox4 gave me CSS issue with my product pages, but it fixed it by defining a width.
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  • Profile picture of the author krikkod
    Heres what i use to make all my IE problems go away...

    <!--[if IE ]>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheets/ieStyles.css" type="text/css" media="screen,projection" />
    <![endif]-->

    NOTE: Make sure to point the path to your IE stylesheet, and make sure you create a seperate IE stylesheet - never use the same stylesheet you used for the other browsers as that will defeat the purpose of the above code.

    DISCLAIMER: You still need to work out the bugs yourself but at least this solution wont affect the css thats already working for the other browsers

    Personally i think every web designer should join forces and redirect all IE users to a firefox download page - i think only then will Microsoft get the hint.

    In saying that IE 9 is shaping up to be a good browser, at least according to the specs, and is in fact one of the surprising front runners for compatibility of HTML 5 and CSS 3 - whodathunkit.

    If anyone needs a better explanation of the above code just holla at me or the 2nd big G - Google that is
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