Web Design & Development

[ Web Design & Development Topics ]

Browser Compatibility

Browsers

The major web browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. However Opera and Firefox are gaining popularity. Bear in mind that your Web browser is actually a "translation device" of sorts, translating code to viewable Web documents. Even with the many standards that exist for writing and interpreting source code (World Wide Web consortium) there is still a fair amount that is vague or left to interpretation. "Cellspacing" in tables is an example of this-- although support of the tag "cellspacing" is universal there is no default value specified. This means if you don't put a value for "cellspacing" into your table then the amount of white space the end user sees may vary.

Compatibility

Not all Web browsers operate in the same manner nor do they all support the same features. Therefore, you need to ensure your pages are cross-browser compatable.

For example:

View a compatabilty chart at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/browser_chart/ (note: you may want to have a pop-up blocker turned on, but the content is good beyond all the advertising.)

Check for Compatibility

You can check your page for browser compatability at: