Cross-browser testing

Jul 17 2004

Like all conscientious web developers, I make an effort to check that my design will work across all browsers and platforms (within reason).

When you use CSS to lay out your site, it becomes even more important to ensure that you carry out this vital step in the development process. I run Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 0.8, Netscape 7 and Opera 7 on my laptop, and always check my layouts in each browser after any major code or CSS changes. iCapture is a great tool for seeing what it might look like on a Mac, or you can make friends with a helpful Mac owner.

The reason I’m talking about this aspect of design is that I’ve spent the last three days attending a residential course at Staverton Park Conference Centre and Hotel on Project Management. One of the services that the conference centre offers is a web cafe/internet lounge, with four terminals and broadband internet access.

The browser that was installed on the PCs provided seemed to be IE based, but was skinned to the conference centre company, and I soon found that it rendered my site slightly differently to any other browser – the sidebar was pushed down to the bottom of the page, although not, as you might expect, right under the main content; it started a few inches before the end of the content column.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to test the layout to see if I could address the problem, but it was a useful lesson – it is obviously not important that my blog is accessible to conference delegates around the world, but for a commercial site it may be beneficial to spend that little extra effort seeking out the alternative browsers to ensure that your testing can truly be considered complete.

Filed under: Design.

Digg this article

Bookmark this article with del.icio.us

Previously: Converting mdp_calendar to standards compliance

Next: Filtering my own visits from Shortstat


Comments

chuck
1511 days ago
That’s a great learning experience, huh? So did you find out what browser it was?

To test my site on a Mac, I just went into the new Apple store in Dallas :) Quite fun!
#1
Matt
1511 days ago
Unfortunately we don’t have Apple stores over here in the UK, and most computer stores don’t have all their stock connected to the internet.

Luckily I have a friend on IM with a Mac, so he’s my cross-platform tester at the moment!
#2
Dazzla
1299 days ago
Try PC World – they often have internet-connected Macs.

Other than that, there is at least one Apple shop in London – Centaur Trading Estate near Gillette Corner just off the A4 (Syon Lane station) It’s a bit on the small side though, so you might not get away with ‘experienceing’ the stock unless you can talk a good talk.

I used to work near there and hanging around in that shop is the only thing to do between Heathrow and Richmond.
#3