Occasionally website owners ask us to ‘fix’ a web page because someone told them it wasn’t displaying properly. Sometimes the text is not wrapping correctly or a paragraph is running over the edge of a column or perhaps an image is in the wrong place, etc.
While it is possible that there could be a format or structural issue with the page there are also many reasons these apparent errors could be showing that are NOT the result of a problem with the page.
First, web browsers are NOT created equal. They all interpret the code provided to it slightly differently. This can result in slightly different layouts from one browser to another or, worse, things are correct in some browsers and broken in others.
When I say ‘web browsers’ I mean the program you use to look at web sites. For example, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and a number of others.
The browser version can also play a part in how a page is displayed. A page built using today’s common methods with lots of CSS and that displays nicely in Internet Explorer 8.0 can be nearly unusable in Internet Explorer 6.0. This is because with each new version the browser is updated to use the latest technologies. Often these are not compatible with the technologies used on an older site.
Another item is font choices. When you build a website you want to use common fonts. When the browser assembles the web page for your visitor it usually uses the fonts installed on your visitors machine. If you have chosen an unusual font the browser will do it’s best to find a similar alternative. But the spacing is likely to be different than your original choice. That can throw things off as well.
The best practice is to be sure your websites are as ‘Standards Compliant’ as possible so that they will be as similar as possible from one computer to the next and from one browser to the next.
The goal is a consistent display for the majority of your visitors. But keep in mind that there will probably always be someone who doesn’t see your site the way you intended it.