Test Proves Fatal In Internet Explorer (IE)

Posted by Barbara Swafford on Thursday, January 31st 2008   
Filed in: Archives, Blogging Lessons, WordPress    

Commitments in real life will take me away from the blog beginning July 15th. While here, feel free to dig through the archives, list your site in the Blog Registry, visit the great bloggers who are listed in "Featured Blogs" or those who faithfully comment on the posts. The next lesson will be published on Friday, July 24th. Until then, enjoy....

Testing your blog in more than one browser is not only important, it’s essential. Essential, because all of your visitors will not be using the same browser as you.

Today’s Lesson

Months ago, I was in the market for a new blog theme. My extensive search revealed one, I absolutely loved.

I quickly downloaded it, and put it use.

In my Firefox browser, it was very impressive.

But, when I tested it in IE (Internet Explorer), it totally collapsed.

The sidebars were distorted, parts were missing, and in IE, it didn’t even look like the same theme.

Thinking I had downloaded an older version, I checked the theme author’s website. There was only one version, no updates.

I read the the comment section, and others were encountering the same problem, however, the author did not offer “a fix”.

My continued search lead me to the theme I am currently using.

I actually like this one better (for now)……so all is not lost.

Today’s Assignment

Have you tested your blog theme in more than one browser?

Are you seeing a difference?

Is it something you can live with, or will you have to make adjustments?

12 Comments

CatherineLNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

Hi Barbara - I’ve tested mine in IE and Firefox and it seems the same.

I rarely use the AOL browser. But I didn’t bother to test one of my websites in AOL once and it was ages before I realised that the site was a complete mess in AOL.

Guess what - I’ve finally managed to put a pic in my blogpost. I was trying to use an Image Gallery plugin. But, it wasn’t working cos I had the older version of Wordpress.

CatherineL’s last blog post..What Are People Saying About Your Business Online?

[Reply]

BarbaraNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

Hi Catherine,

I just read your new post…very informative, as usual.

I also noticed the picture…you’re way ahead of me.

Did you get your WP updated? Let me know if you need any help.

Speaking of browsers, I check to my stats to see which ones my visitors are using. I haven’t checked them all, but IE produces a little different result than Firefox for my blogs. I had to do a little bit of tweaking.

Barbara’s last blog post..Test Proves Fatal In Internet Explorer (IE)

[Reply]

Hunter NuttallNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

This is very good advice. My theme is just Kubrick with a face-lift, and still I had browser issues. When I tested my blog in IE, the colors were completely different: light gray background instead of black, and blue links instead of red. What I found out was that in the stylesheet:

/* this comments out a line in both Firefox and IE */

// this comments out a line in just Firefox

Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..Fighting Chain Letters With Common Sense

[Reply]

BarbaraNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

Hi Hunter,

Isn’t that ironic that even Kubrick shows differences?

Although we may have a browser preference, it’s our readers we should be catering to.

Barbara’s last blog post..Test Proves Fatal In Internet Explorer (IE)

[Reply]

NezNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

Barbara,

Thank you for the timely post. After having switched to a Mac, I’ve pretty much “forgotten” about how my site would look on a PC. I had to fire up the virtual PC (Fusion) to take a look.

Somehow, the site looks better on my Mac, so I guess I have some more tweaking to do.

Thanks again for the reminder.

Nez’s last blog post..The Bitter History Teacher

[Reply]

BarbaraNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

Nez.

You’re welcome.

We can’t assume all is well with our blog in cyberspace, can we? I’m glad the post was timely.

Barbara’s last blog post..Test Proves Fatal In Internet Explorer (IE)

[Reply]

NicoleNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

I test mine with FF and IE.
In IE I have a small glitch in the about area, but I can live with that.

The next few days / weeks I don’t need to do any tweaking or testing until the two broken cables in the ocean near India are fixed.

I am currently loading every page about 5 times until I maybe get to the comment section.
Most parts and pictures are still missing ……

Google works for me only in bits and pieces,…., at least my mail works still - for now :(

So, no more comment love for today or for catch - up for older posts, sorry……. ;)
(What a pain…)

[Reply]

Ian DennyNo Gravatar said on January 31st, 2008     

I haven’t tested! Like you Barbara, things are a little busy right now. Have my father staying for a week (lives abroad, and his sister, my aunt, is ill).

And real busy at work. So little time for blogging for a few days!

As soon as will test in Firefox etc…

Ian Denny’s last blog post..Hate Selling? I Do Too. Instead Of Desperation, Here’s How To Have Fun And Get Sales

[Reply]

David BradleyNo Gravatar said on February 1st, 2008     

I’ve been testing some little CSS tweaks to see if I could make floating bits and pieces in my header, but just couldn’t get it to work properly in IE7 (although it was perfect in FF) so have abandoned the idea altogether. I worked out how to add conditional tags for IE in the stylesheet, but it didn’t help, in fact it broke some aspects of the mods in FF!

Simpler is safer it seems.

db

David Bradley’s last blog post..Hack Your Own Site for Simpler Searching

[Reply]

BarbaraNo Gravatar said on February 1st, 2008     

Hello Nicole,

It sounds like you have your hands full due to the broken cable. Hopefully they get it fixed soon.

Ian,

I think your blog is okay in FF as that is my preferred browser, and everything looks great,

Being busy at work is good, but take some time off to enjoy your time with your relatives.

Hi David,

You are way ahead of me…floating bits and pieces? In the past I did some adjustments in the CSS files, but since I changed themes, I’ve left it alone. Learning more about CSS is on my “list”.

There is so much to learn with blogging, I’m trying to get the basics down first.

The last time I tried to so something I didn’t completely understand, I crashed my blogs. Yikes!!!! That wasn’t pretty.

Barbara’s last blog post..A New Reality Show - How Not To Blog?

[Reply]

Natural WomanNo Gravatar said on February 6th, 2008     

I had the same problem. I use Firefox now and check it in IE when I get to work. I also got a new theme and learned how to embedd you tube videos properly so that it would not throw stuff off.

Natural Woman’s last blog post..Meet the Bloggers

[Reply]

BarbaraNo Gravatar said on February 6th, 2008     

Hi Natural Woman,

Isn’t it amazing how different your theme can look when you compare them in more than one browser?

Barbara’s last blog post..If Content Is Queen, Where Is She Hiding

[Reply]



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