Q. Why do browsers display pages differently on other people's computers?
Browser Differences
Your Web browser is a translation device. It takes a document written in the HTML language (for example) and translates it into a formatted Web page. The result of this translation is a little like giving two human translators a sentence written in French and asking them to translate it into English. Both will get the meaning across, but may not use the same words to do so.
The basic rules for translating HTML documents are established by the World Wide Web consortium, which publishes official standards (see About Browsers). But there's considerable room for interpretation within those ground rules.
For example, the HTML standards say that the TABLE tag should support a CELLSPACING attribute to define the space between parts of the table. But standards don't define the default value for that attribute, so unless you explicitly define CELLSPACING when building your page, two browsers may use different amounts of white space in your table.
In addition, the HTML standards usually run ahead of what the browsers support. No browser as yet supports 100% of the HTML Version 5 standard, but some browsers come closer than others. Over the past few years Internet Explorer has done a much better job of this than Netscape Navigator, though Opera has done arguably the best job.
But since support for the latest HTML tags isn't universal, you could be formatting your pages with parts of the language that not all browsers understand. In that case the browser will ignore that part of your page it can't translate, and the way your page displays will be affected.
Different Computer Types
The Macintosh is still used by 12% of computer users, and has a very loyal following among graphic designers and publishers. In theory, if you view your page on both a PC and a Mac using the same version of the same browser, it should display the same, right?
In practice that's rarely the case. There are three reasons for this:
* Font Availability. When you tell your Web page to use a particular typeface, such as "Arial," you may not always get the font you want. Fonts are a computer resource, and not all computers have the same fonts as your computer. That's true even between different PCs, but it's especially true between the PC and the Mac. If the typeface of your page suddenly changes between these computers, you've probably used a font that isn't available on both computer types.
* Font Size. The Mac will generally render your typeface in a smaller pixel size than the PC will. That's especially true if you use the FONT tag to set your type size, since this tag uses abstract units to define size. You can avoid this problem if you use Cascading Style Sheets to set your font size in pixels (such as that used with Shopkeeper's wysiwyg editor).
* Internet Explorer. Microsoft used to outsource the development of Internet Explorer for the Mac, and so to a large extent this is a different browser from the PC version. What's more IE is no longer offered for Mac -Mac OS 10 ships with Safari. In particular, the Mac version of Internet Explorer (5.2) is prone to quirks and bugs that you won't see in the PC version.
Browser Bugs
As you've probably seen by now, formatting your Web page that displays well on all browsers isn't easy. To make matters worse, sometimes you've done everything right, and your page still doesn't display correctly under one specific browser. It's not your fault - you've just encountered a browser bug.
Unfortunately, browser bugs are a fact of life when formatting your any database site from your high-end Web Store to Shopkeeper pages. Each browser has its own unique set of errors and quirks that you have to adapt to. That's especially true with Version 4 of Netscape Navigator, whose early editions were rushed out the door to beat Internet Explorer to market. A columnist for WebReference recently called Navigator Version 4 "truly terrible browser."
Browser quirks can break your pages
For example, take perhaps the most widely encountered browser bug in existence. The HTML standards say that when you build an HTML table, you don't have to explicitly close each table cell with a closing tag. This closing tag is optional. Yet unless you explicitly close your table cells, Navigator 4 will not display your table if it is nested inside another table. Since nesting tables is common practice to control page layout, this bug wrecks many well-formatted pages.
Netscape isn't the only browser prone to bugs. Internet Explorer for the Macintosh has a number of bugs and quirks in the way it handles text spacing.
These are just a few examples of the affect Browsers have on your site. Most of the issues involve you working in the admin as a manager - formatting your info and item pages. If one of the features or functions isn't working properly - the number one cause is most likely the Browser you are using. As a site manager, the browser you are using is a critical choice. Standards change rapidly in this ever-evolving new technology world... and each browser has different standards.
Internet Explorer
Netscape
FireFox
Safari
Opera
Chrome
There are two considerations:
1. While viewing an ecommerce site for example (as a shopper) pages may display nicely across top Browsers, your ability to format your pages (as a manager) may not. For this purpose, if you are encountering problems, you may need to consider downloading another Browser.
2. Browsers and standards are constantly updated. Updates mean change in standards. Change in standards refers to how a Browser you use today interprets code versus how that same Browser might interpret code tomorrow.
The impact of Browser differences on your web site is not isolated. Browser compatibility is universal across the Internet. It's not a huge problem if your web developer does not know how to solve it for your site. But you should know or become familiar with Browser issues.
We've used HTML language as the example in Browser differences. Programming with PHP interpreting code is basically the same. Or basically the same differences. |
