# Which browser to develop you website for



## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

Since viewing websites can sometimes differ when viewed with different browsers, how do you know which browser you should develop your site for?

IE 6
IE 7
Mozilla
Others


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## kriscad (Dec 18, 2006)

firefox


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## AndyC (Jul 20, 2007)

paulo said:


> Since viewing websites can sometimes differ when viewed with different browsers, how do you know which browser you should develop your site for?
> 
> IE 6
> IE 7
> ...


I would say you got the main ones. IE 6, 7 and Firefox. Probably Safari for MAC and maybe Opera.

Andy


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## lauerja (Aug 8, 2006)

When developing using your own code, always code to work on IE 4 - 5 and above as well as Friefox. There are a lot of scripts available on line that will work for most briwsers that you can use as well.

If you concentrate on IE 6 and above, you may alienate som e customers if you use code that will not work for older browsers.

there a many PC users that do not update browsers because either they do not know how or don't want to learn something new.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

paulo said:


> Since viewing websites can sometimes differ when viewed with different browsers, how do you know which browser you should develop your site for?
> 
> IE 6
> IE 7
> ...


I usually design so the website looks roughly the same in all of them.

Sure, there may be some minor differences, but as long as it is about the same and still functional, it's good.

If your site actually "breaks" when viewing it in another browser (can't load, navigational elements don't work, big white spaces where there shouldn't be, etc), then you need to work on it.

There are also services out there that will show you what your site looks like in different browsers and computers. I think browsersnapshot.com is one of them.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

The tiny % of people that aren't covered by IE5,6,7 and Mozilla/Firefox/Safari are a demographic that's not going to be online shopping anyway...


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## shinsyotta (Oct 31, 2006)

Definitely IE7 and Firefox.


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## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

Anyone have any hints on making Mozilla and IE look the same?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

paulo said:


> Anyone have any hints on making Mozilla and IE look the same?


what specifically are you trying to do? Or what are you having problems with?


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## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

Rodney said:


> what specifically are you trying to do? Or what are you having problems with?


Ok I have a site with both php and html pages using the same css.

In FF, Moz, everything is fine.

In IE, the php is fine, centered, perfect. but the HTML page is moved to the left.


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## mizi117 (Mar 12, 2007)

paulo said:


> Ok I have a site with both php and html pages using the same css.
> 
> In FF, Moz, everything is fine.
> 
> In IE, the php is fine, centered, perfect. but the HTML page is moved to the left.


actually yo can center the html page
put 
<center><center>

before<body>


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## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

mizi117 said:


> actually yo can center the html page
> put
> <center><center>
> 
> before<body>



Thanks! Now I have to fix the hole in the wall from banging my head on it.


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## bergenandco (Jul 30, 2007)

I have both PC and Mac. The Safari for Mac doesn't like the DIV tags so keep that in mind.


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## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

mizi117 said:


> actually yo can center the html page
> put
> <center><center>
> 
> before<body>


Actually couldnt use that tag....it centered everything...even the lines I dont want centered.


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## paulo (Dec 13, 2006)

bergenandco said:


> I have both PC and Mac. The Safari for Mac doesn't like the DIV tags so keep that in mind.


I guess I can live with how it is for now....


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

paulo said:


> Actually couldnt use that tag....it centered everything...even the lines I dont want centered.


Just put the

```
[CENTER][/CENTER]
```
 tags around the stuff you want centered.

If you put it right after the body tag and right before the closing body tag, the whole page will be centered. 

If you just put it around one picture or one paragraph, then just that part of the page will be centered.


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## phatphil (Jul 16, 2007)

The <center> tag is deprecated and I don't recommend using it. You can use IE Conditional Comments to create IE specific stylesheets.

I build my browser in Mac FF and test in:

Mac: FF, Safari
Windows: FF, IE7, IE6, IE5.5, IE5, Safari

A lot of people recommend testing in Mac/Win Opera also, but I never have.

If you're up on web standards, then you're using CSS for positioning and will most likely require a separate stylesheet(s) for IE or you can use any of various CSS hacks to target IE only.

My site is built using DIVs and completely valid code. The main body is an 800px wide, horizontally centered DIV wrapper.

You can check your site's validation at w3.org.


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