I have built a site and it looks good in firefox etc...
it even looks ok in IE 7 & 8
but in IE 5 and 6 it looks horrible, and i don't even know where to begin!
the guy i made it for, shows his clients the website and they keep telling him how crap i am. so he's giving me a lot of hassle for it and making me feel bad.
well i don't have ie6 right now but i can give you some advice i guess
put display:inline everywhere where you have used float, half of your problem will gone.
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use ie conditions and include separate css for ie6 and do what you want to do with ie.
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use ie developer toolbar to quick fix things and see it's right, just like firebug it's developer toolbar for ie
i hope your problems get solved.
next time when you take project make sure you tell your client that you don't support ie6 or make yourself easy with ie and learn its box model and why it looks different in ie6.
IE 5? Please don't tell me your client want the site coded for IE 5. IE 5 is currently standing at a fraction of 1% of browser usage. It's used to little that they don't even bother listing it as a statistic. Anyone who has bought a computer in the last 10 years doesn't even have IE 5.
As for IE 6. Create an IE only stylesheet and remove some of the bells and whistles. Anyone who uses IE 6 doesn't deserve them anyway. You should tell your boss/client that when coding for those old browsers it is really hard to make things look good.
To add to @noahgelman, you could start with the universal IE6 stylesheet. Does this guy know there are security vulnerabilities in IE6? You'd be doing them a service by asking them to at least upgrade to a new version. http://code.google.com/p/universal-ie6-css/
As much as it sucks and as much as I hate it, it's a reality that a lot of people still use IE6, and if you're making a business website for an actual paying client, you're probably going to have to make your website look OK in it. Even more unfortunate is the fact that most people have no idea how much of a pain this is, and they just want to know why they keep getting complaints from people that their site doesn't look right.
It's fun to say screw IE6 and think about serving up generic style sheets that disable most of your design for IE6 users, but the fact is that's just not going to fly with real clients in most cases. They're going to be bugging you and asking why doesn't this look as awesome on my mom's work laptop?
I popped your site open in IETester, and it really doesn't look that messed up in IE6. Maybe you've already fixed some stuff?
The biggest issues I see are .png transparency not working on your navigation bar, and a script error popping up when the page loads.
Not sure what to do about the script error, but it looks like ti;s keeping your background image from loading, maybe?
iepngfix is an easy way to get transparent .png support in IE6. Basically you just load the script and add the class "pngfix" to anything that uses transparent .pngs. There's more to it, but you can find it all here: http://www.twinhelix.com/css/iepngfix/.
There are several other methods for dealing with .png transparency and crappy browsers, and I can't say which is best, but iepnfix has worked very well for me up to now.
Good luck, man. I feel your pain. Some day, 20 years from now, we won't have to waste our time with IE6 anymore... *sigh*
I have a problem with the w3 stats. People consistently use them - but why? They don't even come close to reflecting the general population's browsing habits. How many Grandparents do you know that are hitting W3? It's a tech site for developers and programmers. If developers and programmers are still at 7.2%, I can't imagine how high the number must be for the general public.
It all comes down to the target audience. If you're selling a product, and 10% of the population cannot buy the product because you don't support their browser, you just lost sales. Nobody wants to lose money.
I have built a site and it looks good in firefox etc...
it even looks ok in IE 7 & 8
but in IE 5 and 6 it looks horrible, and i don't even know where to begin!
the guy i made it for, shows his clients the website and they keep telling him how crap i am. so he's giving me a lot of hassle for it and making me feel bad.
my website is www.procurehealth.co.uk
please can someone help me with this? it's such a mess and i am panicking a bit!
i would be soo grateful if you guys can help!
thanks
silverlulu
put display:inline everywhere where you have used float, half of your problem will gone.
+
use ie conditions and include separate css for ie6 and do what you want to do with ie.
+
use ie developer toolbar to quick fix things and see it's right, just like firebug it's developer toolbar for ie
i hope your problems get solved.
next time when you take project make sure you tell your client that you don't support ie6 or make yourself easy with ie and learn its box model and why it looks different in ie6.
As for IE 6. Create an IE only stylesheet and remove some of the bells and whistles. Anyone who uses IE 6 doesn't deserve them anyway. You should tell your boss/client that when coding for those old browsers it is really hard to make things look good.
It's fun to say screw IE6 and think about serving up generic style sheets that disable most of your design for IE6 users, but the fact is that's just not going to fly with real clients in most cases. They're going to be bugging you and asking why doesn't this look as awesome on my mom's work laptop?
I popped your site open in IETester, and it really doesn't look that messed up in IE6. Maybe you've already fixed some stuff?
The biggest issues I see are .png transparency not working on your navigation bar, and a script error popping up when the page loads.
Not sure what to do about the script error, but it looks like ti;s keeping your background image from loading, maybe?
iepngfix is an easy way to get transparent .png support in IE6. Basically you just load the script and add the class "pngfix" to anything that uses transparent .pngs. There's more to it, but you can find it all here:
http://www.twinhelix.com/css/iepngfix/.
There are several other methods for dealing with .png transparency and crappy browsers, and I can't say which is best, but iepnfix has worked very well for me up to now.
Good luck, man. I feel your pain. Some day, 20 years from now, we won't have to waste our time with IE6 anymore... *sigh*
IE6 is under 8% market share now which is half of what it was a year ago.
Youtube doesn't even support IE6 anymore, I'd drop it.
I still think the generic IE6 stylesheet is a good place to start.
It all comes down to the target audience. If you're selling a product, and 10% of the population cannot buy the product because you don't support their browser, you just lost sales. Nobody wants to lose money.
thanks for the moral support as well... something i always find at this place!
i love the png fix idea, so i am going to check that out. and the generic ie 6 stylesheet sounds great as well.
honestly. thank you all very much for your help. it's very very appreciated!!