Question: Why doesn't my site look good in Netscape?

Help! I've developed my website testing it in Internet Explorer, and then all of a sudden after it's already published, I was at a friend's house and he was using Netscape Navigator, and my site looks horrible!

What should I do?

Answer

Unfortunately, just because a site looks great in one web browser, that's no guarrantee that it'll look like anything but chopped liver in another.

(I'm not a fan of chopped liver, by the way)


In comparing Netscape Navigator with Internet Explorer, the worst offender I've found is: tables. Especially in older versions of Navigator, tables are not handled in the same way as they are in Internet Explorer, with the result that your page which was so carefully laid out in IE looks like garbage in Navigator.

Look at issues like: table borders, background images, cell widths and row heights.

The best thing to do when developing a website is to have a multitude of web browsers on hand: Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Safari, Firefox, Opera, etc. Compare the appearance of your site in each of these while you are developing it. I have friends and family who have a variety of different web browsers, so I have them look at my sites and give me feedback.