I ran my web pages through both HTML & CSS validators & passed, yet my site is still askew in some browsers. Other than being compliant, what is the point of the validators?

I (wrongly?) assumed that if your pages passed the validators they would appear mostly the same with all browsers. Silly me. Let this be a lesson to other newbie web designers - test your pages in other browsers as you go along - not the last task!

Lezly

Lezly,
Yes that is the bane of web designers.

Always check in as many browsers as possible as you build your code. Browser Shots is one I use to do just that. Only drawback is the site has to be live.
I have Firefox, IE & Opera (all newest versions) installed on my PC so I can at least keep an eye on them.
I don't run the validators until I don't see any issues in any browser.

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~Christina|BD Mag|VOSTeam

Wow, Christina, thanks for this great link!

I have to admit I've never heard of a couple of these browsers.

Yup, this is the case even if one is writing validated standards-compliant code. The number of browsers that need to be checked are enormous: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and so on (including older versions of all the browsers, not just new versions). And then, how do they appear on a Mac or PC, etc?

I love browsershots and also use Adobe's browserlab: https://browserlab.adobe.com/index.html#. With Adobe's browserlab you do have to create an account, but it is free. Pretty cool interface, too.

I do have IE, Firefox, and Safari installed on my computer, but I also use browsershots and/or Adobe's browserlab to check things out there, too.

I have sworn for years that I'm going to shoot IE dead - that browser has been a thorn in my side forever! Holly Hack has been my friend for a long, long time because of IE.

What fun, though!

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Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - WordPress Customization & XHTML/CSS Web Sites

Whew! That was a chore! But all the skewed stuff is finally straightened out! There are a few quirks, but for the most part my site looks pretty good on the more popular browsers.

Tomorrow I'll nail down the final content & then this sucker's going live. And once it goes live, I'll consider myself officially open for business!




~crosses fingers