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Why
Your Website Looks Funny in Some Browsers
Everyone wants their
website to look great when visitors browse, but sometimes
you find that your site just doesn’t look like
you expected it to in some browsers. This can be frustrating;
after all, you put so much time, effort and money into
the design. What happened?
If you consider a web
page the same as a page of advertising copy, you are
bound to be surprised when you realize that there are
major differences that affect how your web pages will
look. Publishers who work in print have unlimited ability
to change the look and style of any page. They can choose
the font, the colors and the pictures knowing it is
always going to look exactly the same when it is printed.
Website pages will not
always look the same because web designers face variables
that they simply can not control. How a web page looks
depends on a great many external factors, including
the computer system the person is using, what type of
browser he or she is using and whether the browser can
interpret the code used to design the web page. Even
a virus or bug in a browser can scramble the look of
a web page.
To understand how much
a website’s look can vary from computer to computer,
look at it from the perspective of the person viewing,
not the perspective of the designer. Once the web page
is posted, the designer has no control over it. Now
take a look at the page through the “eyes”
of the site’s visitor; view the page through his
or her browser, and you may see something much different
from what you intended.
Each computer’s
hardware and software configuration will affect the
look of any site viewed via the Internet. Even the resolution
of text will vary depending upon the dots-per-inch (dpi)
used for displaying images, so sometimes text will appear
larger or smaller than you intended. The brightness
of the monitor settings and accuracy of the color will
vary as well depending on the quality and type of monitor
used.
The framing of a page
will look different from computer to computer because
each PC user will set up the “tools” he
uses to his own liking. Scroll bars, tool bars and buttons
can all be moved about and will change the look of the
page. Think about it – doesn’t the frame
used on a picture change the whole look of the photo?
Different browsers (such
as NetScape or Internet Explorer) also have different
built-in codes that will automatically change the look
of any website viewed with them. An example is abbreviations
– some browsers will automatically underline them,
some will leave them as-is, and others italicize them.
Since you can’t control each browser, you can’t
control how your abbreviations are viewed. You just
have to hope for the best and shoot for what you feel
is the most common browser likely to be used by your
site visitors, understanding that the basic content
should still be understandable and that most differences
will be primarily stylistic.
One exception to this
is if a web designer has used older, arcane code that
isn’t recognized as standards by today’s
browsers. When the Internet was relatively new, each
company that designed a browser built in features that
were unique to them, hoping to create a demand for their
particular “perks.” This backfired when
consumers complained of not being able to access website
properly because so many were only viewable with particular
browsers. Today, most browsers read standard codes,
including HTML and JAVA that are used by the majority
of web designers. On rare occasions you will hit a website
that states it has to be viewed with a particular browser,
but these days it is uncommon.
Finally, remember that,
like all things associated with computers, browsers
sometimes simply act up. If you are viewing a web page
that appears to have a bug in it, you may find that
it doesn’t the next time you visit the site. The
simple fact is most browsers have bugs that act up once
in a while. Often, the manufacturer discovers these
bugs after receiving complaints, and will work to fix
them. If your browser keeps acting up, go to the manufacturer’s
website and download the latest version available. This
will usually fix problems, as the makers try to make
the “least buggy” version available at all
times.
If you are designing
a website, it is obvious that you have to take these
issues into consideration. Remember that the web master
can reproduce what you’ve designed as a hard copy
only to the extent he or she has actual control. If
you keep this in mind and are willing to focus on the
content and overall design, you will understand that
each viewer may see something slightly different, but
the general tone and the most important part –
the information – will remain constant. Remember
that there is a plus side to the web that print copy
doesn’t have – you can change web page content
quickly and easily any time you want at very little
cost. Constantly updating your look and image is much
easier than ditching your printed copy and starting
over.
In the long run, with
web-standard code more common and computer users able
to adjust browsers to suit their viewing needs, the
advantages of the web far outweigh the minor discrepancies
found when viewing your site through a variety of browsers.
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Why
redesign your website?