Browser compatability is one of the biggest issues of web page design, whilst there are many "standards" for web progamming, it does not mean that your web pages will look the same in internet explorer, netscape, opera, firebird... and so on.

One solution to this is to have several browsers running on on your PC, and we would strongly recommend that you test pages in at the very least internet explorer and netscape.

Another solution that you should also consider is the site:

Any Browser

For another take on how your site might look, though this view is in our experience a little suspect. Certainly it does not show our site as it looks it the browsers we have tested.

For sites with limited resources the whole prospect of browser compatibility can be daunting.

We offer the following general tips:

Test in at least Internet Explorer and Netscape.

This is a minimum, and it is probably advisable to test in Opera as well, not least it may convince you that there is no way you are going to get your site to display "pixel perfect" for everyone. Different browser will have different attitudes to minor details of font spacing and you will just have to accept this, or spend endless hours chasing details that may change in the next release of each browser.

Check for your own web page faults

Is is easy to blame web browsers for differences in formatting, but it may be that you are contributing to the problem! If you place a two column table on your page and specify and column should be 40% of the width and the other 60% then you have every right to expect this to occur.

But if you specify one column as 70% the other as 40% and then place an oversized graphic in the 40% column, then it is unreasonable to expect each browser to make the same decision in dealing with the formatting.

Pass the Buck

If you use portal software or similar, then someone else should have done a lot of work testing for you. The same applies to the many site navigation menus you can use. Site navigation menus are actually well worth a look before you embark on too many excursions into the woderful world of "client side" scripting. You will see within their code, a large stream of tweaks for the caveats of each browser.

Which is more important to your site? the content, or having your very own personalised scripts?