How do I design for all browsers?
Designing a site so that it looks the same in all browsers is known as 'cross-browser compatibility'.
The important thing to realize when you are coding HTML is that some Tags are not recognized by some browsers. Some tags will work fine in Netscape Navigator but not in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Some Tags work great in Internet Explorer but won't work in Netscape Navigator.
This situation gets worse because some Versions of both will support some tags and not others!
The Tags we have discussed in the tutorials on this site are, for the most part, cross-browser compatible. I did that to keep your confusion to a bare minimum.
There are lists available on the Net, of Tag compatibility, so I would recommend you have a look for some of those. Using the Tags we have discussed should keep you out of trouble though.
Why does THIS site look different in Netscape?
This site is a perfect example of the quandry that cross-browser compatibility can cause. If you view this site in Internet Explorer 4.x or better, it looks pretty darned good! (Even if I do say so myself). If you view it in Netscape Navigator it looks pretty awful! It certainly does not look as I intended it to look.
The problem on this site exists because Netscape does not recognize one of the <TABLE> attributes that Internet Explorer does. Try putting BORDERCOLOR="#FFFFFF" in a Table tag, like this:
<TABLE BORDERCOLOR="#FFFFFF" BORDER="2">
IE will use it, Netscape won't. So, I had to decide on just how important it was, to me, that the site was totally compatible with Netscape. I liked the look that the colored borders in Internet Explorer created. I liked them a lot. So I have kept them. Probably not a good example for you coding neophytes to follow, but there you have it just the same.
It IS important to try and code a page so it is visible and attractive in both browsers, but at some point you will probably encounter the same choice I had to make. I hope you have an easier time deciding than I did!
