Netscape issue

[stvchez123]

I've tested most of my pages in IE and, of course, they look good, but I need to make them look decent in Netscape also. I've gone over the code, and since there are alot of embedded table tags (which I'm sure is the problem), I'm not finding the error. is there an app to debug code? I only use UltraEdit for my text editor and Frontpage for my wzywg and don't think there is a code checking option (I remember that in Dreamweaver, but don't have access to it). Here's my project and would very much appreciate any assistance

http://www.nlainc.com/temp/new_site/mainpage.html

 

[MichiganRon]

stvchez123,

Chances are that your code is not w3c compliant. I'm afraid that I don't have an answer to your question. I do, however, have a suggestion for your future HTML adventures.

Although the overwhelming majority of surfers use IE, you should always write your code to look good in NS or MZ. Why, you ask? Because IE will often "fix" poorly written code to look good. It will add closing tags where required, etc.

This is great for the web surfers because there are MANY amature web developers out there who throw together web pages on a whim and don't bother writing standard compliant code (don't take offense if you're one of those people). IE "fixes" their code.

Netscape does not attempt to fix poorly written code. So, if it looks correct in NS or MZ, it probably means that it's properly written, and therefore, will look right in IE too. Got it? Good.

There is one other issue that you will run into if you plan to use javascript & CSS in any of your webpages: IE & NS treat the Document Object Model (DOM) in different ways. In other words, if you write a line of JS to perform a certain function (like assign a style to an element on the page), you'll need to write it differently depending on which browser your visitor is using. Of course, you may already know this. Then again, you may not care because you don't plan to write javascript & CSS into your webpages.

Now, we wouldn't have this problem if the *#%@ing software manufacturers would write their browsers to be standards-compliant!

But I digress, to answer your question (which I said earlier that I wasn't going to do - I changed my mind): I use HTML-Kit by

http://www.chami.com

for my hand coding needs and Tidy to make sure my code is standards-compliant.

Anyway, sorry for my rant. Hope this helps,
-Ron

-We all play from the same deck of cards, it's how we play the hand we are dealt which makes us who we are.

 

[tviman]

Darkshadeau is correct. IE tries to fix poorly written code based on what it "thinks" the code is trying to do. NS and MZ do what all good programs and scripts should do - exactly what they're told.

NS & MZ take a lot of undue blame. In almost all cases, it's not NS/MZ, but rather the coder's error(s) that cause the problems.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

 

[stvchez123]

thanks alot for your both your replies. Now, regarding my page, I've sifted through every line of code, have commented out all tables and still can't get it looking good in Netscape. Possibly Netscape doesn't like my javascript rollovers but I'm not sure. I don't want to impose on anyone to inch through my code in view - source, but if somebody could maybe spot some glaring "glaring Netscape incompatability", I would much appreciate it.

http://www.nlainc.com/temp/new_site/mainpage.html

(view source if you want)

 

[Vragabond]

Dunno what your Netscape issues you had. If you could be more specific, maybe we can tell you what to change. My Mozilla 1.4 died right after the first table with the flash movie. Nothing beyond that point was shown on the site. A little troubleshooting pointed me to a wrong css declaration for td. Your code had display: block; declaration for a table cell. Default display that is used with table cells is display: table-cell; and your code forced the browser not to render your <td>s as such. I removed the line and the page in Mozilla now looks identical to the one on IE6. Hope it helps.

 

[medic]

For me, the my most important browser issue is table column widths. Check this out: faq215-4499