===================================================
The Add Me! Newsletter *** ISSUE #62 ***
"Free tips for promoting your website and business"
Add Me, Inc http://www.addme.com
The Newsletter is only sent to the users of Add Me!
===================================================
...TODAY'S ARTICLE...
>> Browser Differences <<
........................................................
September 21st, 1999 *** ISSUE #62 ***
........................................................
Message from our sponsor:
===============================================
EXCLUSIVE INVITATION!!!!
For Add Me Subscribers Only
You are cordially invited to attend FREE this
Special Global World Wide Teleconference.
"Own Your Own Banner Exchange
and Never Have to Buy Banners Again"
http://www.BannerCo-op.com/globalconference.html
===============================================
..............................
***************************************************
The Add Me! Newsletter is a high quality newsletter
created to help everyone promote their website and
business on the Internet. The Add Me! Newsletter is
one of the largest newsletters available on the web
focusing on this topic. It is read twice a week by
over 220,000 webmasters and website owners.
Please forward this newsletter to all your friends
and co-workers who might be interested!
Interested in writing an article for this Newsletter?
Go to http://www.addme.com/list.htm for more info!
To un/subscribe, please refer to the end of the message!
***************************************************
.....TODAY'S ARTICLE.....
Browser Differences
=====================
by Steve G. White
Which Browser do you use? If you design web pages and you
answered either Netscape Navigator (NN) or Internet Explorer
(IE) you are wrong. You are also wrong if you answered any
other Browser (you probably did not).
Internet Explorer (65%) and Netscape Navigator (26%) account
for by far the majority of Browsers being used. The other
few percent are mostly specialty Browsers used for a specific
function although there are still some alternative and original
Browsers still being used.
So why is it wrong to use either of these Browsers? The reason
is because there are enough differences between how these
Browsers will display a page that it is imperative that you
test your Web Page creations with both. If for example, you
import HTML into your page with a script error, you may find
it works just fine when viewed in IE. Visitors to your site
using NN may see a jumbled mess and leave wondering what your
site was all about. The reason is that IE is far more forgiving
of Script Errors than Netscape.
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is responsible for defining
the standards that the Browsers are supposed to conform to when
displaying web pages. This only works so far. There are many
things that the standards do not address and other things that
either the browser manufacturer will not or can not conform to.
In addition, the manufacturers like to include add-on features
that the "other" manufacturer does not have.
====================================================
FREE Photo Greetings!
Share your special moments with family & friends. New PHOTO
greetings at Zing.com! Send animated cards starring you or
choose from thousands of photos. Tons of funny, cute, cool &
animated cards to customize. Zing.com - the hottest new
place for online greetings! http://www.zing.com/z?e40c61z11
AOL Users:Click Here
====================================================
In addition to the difference in the way the Browsers handle
errors, there are many stylistic differences in the way they
will display a page. For example, Netscape will display background
text color in a
tag only behind the text while Internet
Explorer will fill the entire bounding box. Other differences
include Border Styles, Fill styles and Scroll Bar styles. There
are many more and probably noone knows them all.
The only way to know how your page is going to appear to a
user is to test it the way a user may see it. This means
installing both Browsers on your machine. (Yes it is possible.)
You should also test with different system resolutions and
with both Large and Small system fonts. On Windows platforms
the worst resolution is either 640x480 or 800x600 with large
fonts. You should also test with different color resolutions.
That JPEG image that looks great at 24 bits may look awful at
256 color resolution. Ask your friends and colleagues to test
your pages and do the same for them.
Both Netscape and Microsoft are working on major updates to
their Browsers that will conform to a standard DOM (Document
Object Model) as specified by the W3C. This will hopefully
address the most significant incompatibility between the
Browsers which relates to Dynamic HTML.
One thing is for certain however. While there is more than
one computer user visiting your web site, there will be more
than one way to see it. You must test across as many possible
configurations as possible.
If you are not aware of it, the W3C or World Wide Web
Consortium is a group of Internet professionals responsible
for defining the www standards such as HTML. The W3C web
site is at http://www.w3.org/ and contains all kinds of
useful Internet information.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Steve G. White is a successful software developer responsible
for multi-million dollar graphics and animation applications
distributed worldwide. Steve is the President and lead software
developer at Virtual Mechanics which develops HTML and Dynamic
HTML applications listed on ZDNet and Beyond.com amongst others.
Steve also publishes IMS Web Tips, a weekly newsletter of tips
and tricks for web site design and promotion.
http://www.VirtualMechanics.com/news/webtips.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------
This newsletter is sent to you as part of the free Add Me!
submission service you have used recently.
If you have missed previous issues of the Add Me! Newsletter
you can find them at: http://www.addme.com/previous.htm
The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of Add Me, Inc. Add Me, Inc makes no warranties,
either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy
of the contents of the Add Me! newsletter.
We want this newsletter to be the best one around. If you
have suggestions, ideas, or feedback about this newsletter,
feel free to email us at mailto:suggest-list@addme.com
To subscribe to this newsletter, please go to
http://www.addme.com/list.htm
Interested in writing an article for this Newsletter?
Go to http://www.addme.com/list.htm for more info!
If you are interested in sponsoring this newsletter,
place your order online: http://www.addme.com/list.htm
==================================================
(c) Copyright 1998-1999 Add Me, Inc
==================================================
