Browser Woes

You’ve finished creating your new website and sent it out into the World Wide Web. You’re so excited, you can’t help visiting it over and over, marveling at what you’ve accomplished (I know — I’ve been there). It looks great — looks great that is, viewed on your computer, using Internet Explorer (IE). But then a colleague calls to let you know that when he looks at your website, on his computer, it doesn’t look so great. In fact, it looks pretty bad. Why would this happen? It turns out your colleague doesn’t use IE. He uses Firefox or Safari or …

And that is the source of your problem: a website that looks good in one web browser, might not look good in another web browser. I call this the “Browser Woes.”

Let me explain.

A web browser is the software program you use to view web pages; you’re using one right now to read this article. Many people are surprised to learn that not everyone uses IE. In fact, there are many web browsers available — the most popular are IE, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera. Complicating matters is the fact that not everyone uses the most current version of a browser, so while you might be using the current version of IE (8.0), someone else might still be using IE 6.0. Websites also perform differently on different platforms (Windows, Linux, MAC OS, etc.).

Experienced web designers know that they have to test websites to be sure they work and look good in, at least, the most popular web browsers. When I’m creating a website, I use software to simulate how it will perform in various browsers. I also test it on different computers — both Macs and PCs. But what if you can’t do that? How can you test your website? Submit it to BrowserShots. Here is how the service is explained on its home page:

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

Browser shots is easy to use: enter the URL of your site and select the web browsers and platforms you want to check. Within 30 minutes, you’ll get a series of screenshots comparing, for example, how your website looks on a PC using Google Chrome to how it looks on a Mac using Firefox. Browsershots also allows you to click on each screenshot to see a larger image.

If you’re satisfied that your website looks good across the most popular browsers, you can launch it to the world. But if you see a problem, you’ll have to determine what is causing it, correct it, and resubmit the website to BrowserShots for another check.

If you notice that your site looks good in Firefox, but not IE (this is one of the most common problems web designers face), you might be tempted to simply slap a disclaimer on your website — something to this effect:

“This site works best in Firefox 3.0. Download it here.”

Don’t do it. You’re asking your visitor to take an extra step to view your site. And there’s a good chance that she might leave and go to a competitor’s site. Instead, fix the problem (try searching the web for help if you can’t figure it out on your own) or, if you can’t correct it, revise the website so the problem is eliminated.