Try out SuperPreview or the whole package (Expression Web announced at Mix) if you can..
SuperPreview is a new free standalone application from Microsoft (still in beta) which enables you to see how your websites will look across different versions of Internet Explorer making migration from IE6 to 7 and 8 much easier than before, without have to start up a Virtual Machine to run IE6, or have a separate computer dedicated to running IE6.
All browsers have their various quirks and no browser is guaranteed to display or act the same as another. While W3C is making great strides to expand the functionality that should be standardized, many RFCs are not yet to the Recommendation stage, which is the stage that means it will no longer change and are more likely to be acceptable standards to develop on. Because of this, it is imperative that you ensure your site works in, at minimum, the browsers within your focus group.
First, use reset.css or normalize.css. Both try to serve the same goal (consistency fixes between browsers), but each attacks the problem from different angles. So make sure you choose the one that works best for you. While not perfect, they get pretty darn close in all browsers, which is more than you can say without it.
Second, check out QuirksMode to see the various browser compatability with standards (whether those standards are in recommended stage or not). This is where you can decide on the features you will use that match the compatibility with your focus group.
Third, with your new power of a 'consistent' css base, and knowledge of what browsers support what, be sure to read, embrace, preach, and apply progressive enhancement techniques (see articles I like on it below). The power of progressive enhancement is to use what does work instead of trying to shoehorn a fat foot into a slim shoe.
Articles on progressive enhancement:
- http://www.alistapart.com/articles/understandingprogressiveenhancement
- http://www.alistapart.com/articles/progressiveenhancementwithcss
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement
Lastly, install any other browsers that you consider in your focus group. Doing so will allow you to test, without question, the appearance on the page.
On windows, I recommend installing IE9 to be able to switch rendering modes to older versions of IE. While these rendering modes are not perfect, in most cases they can be just as reliable as the real thing. If you cannot install IE9, I feel sorry for you, but, luckily, IE8 gives you similar power for rendering modes.
On anything else (or even windows if you want the real IE browsers rather than emulation), you need to get a windows virtual instance running. There are many ways to get then and MS even provides various images of instances specifically for developers to be able to test old versions of IE. See this blog post for more details on where to get the MS supplied IE6 and IE7 VPCs.
Using these tools you should be more than able to develop a design that will look -- no -- work and degrade gracefully in 100% of browsers and validate that it is implemented correctly. While it can be a bit daunting, this will greatly reduce the chance of display/js related bug upon release.
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