Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (Full Version)

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ghooke -> Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/6/2008 16:04:40)

I create all my websites in MS Front Page 2003 and I have recently started using Firefox, but I am alarmed to find that my website look totally different in the FF browser than they do in Internet Explorer.

In Internet Explorer, my sites look as I designed them in FP

In FF, Fonts are miss sized, border mis-sized and mis-colored, and other differences as well.

Others looking at my sites through FF will just leave because they look bad.

I have spoken to a number of people who say FP generates junk code that is only readable by IE, while other browsers try to read the code properly....but can't. And that FP is the worst product to use to develop a website

How do I solve this problem, as it seem other browsers are becoming increasingly popular compared to the problem IE has.

--Glen



ghooke -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/6/2008 16:21:21)

May I should just upgrade to Expressions Web, export my sites from FP 2003 and into Expressions Web, and be done with the problem.

Anyone had experience with that and with data transfer as I explained?

--Glen



womble -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/6/2008 16:23:25)

There are no easy fixes unfortunately. Learn the basics of HTML, always check your pages out with the W3C validator to ensure your code validates, and if it doesn't, fix it so it passes validation (which is why you need to know the basics of HTML). Don't rely on Frontpage to produce the code for you because you need to know how to fix it when it gets it wrong. I created my first site in FP2003 and I think that lasted about three weeks on the server before I arrived here and decided to learn HTML and totally re-do the site so it used valid code. I switched completely from WYSIWYG to hand-coding, and I've never gone back, but there is other software out there that's better than FP code-wise. Nvu is a free programme that has a WYSIWYG interface and a code view, or there are various text-editors that give you varied amounts of assistance in coding and some also have a preview built in - Topstyle, HTML-Kit, Notepad++, Araneae, and my favourite and the one I'm using at the moment is PSPad (as recommended by Tailslide [;)]) but there are loads of others too.

The golden rule is to always design for Firefox - if it works in Firefox it'll work in pretty much everything else - and then tweak as necessary for Internet Explorer to take account of the bits of the HTML specs that IE gets wrong and deals with just how it likes.



womble -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/6/2008 16:25:53)

Oooops! We were obviously posting at the same time! [:D]

Yep, or your other alternative is to upgrade to Expression Web, though I've no experience of that - as I said, I tend to go for hand-coding using a text editor these days.



codenamebill26 -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/19/2008 5:06:49)

redirect according to browser type, you can find a javascript browser detector script on the net and then if your code is that bad just make your pages only avail. to be browsed using ie



d a v e -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/19/2008 5:29:33)

"redirect according to browser type, you can find a javascript browser detector script on the net and then if your code is that bad just make your pages only avail. to be browsed using ie"

!!!

er, womble i'll let you answer that one :)



caz -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/19/2008 6:49:56)

quote:

FP is the worst product to use to develop a website


You might like to read a grown up discussion about Code bloat, myths and wysiwyg editors that we had here a while ago.

Then you can save some money by learning to use your FP wisely and a good start would be to Change the default template to one that is valid then you can start learning. [:D]



Tailslide -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/19/2008 7:53:56)


quote:

ORIGINAL: codenamebill26

redirect according to browser type, you can find a javascript browser detector script on the net and then if your code is that bad just make your pages only avail. to be browsed using ie


For a start that's slightly unfortunate for all those people who happen to be using the more modern browsers that won't display the page the same as older or just plain old-fashioned ones like IE does. It's actually infuriating - having come across this myself.

Secondly it won't work as many browsers disguise themselves as another browser - Opera does this pretty regularly - so the script won't actually be able to do it's job properly anyway.

Thirdly it won't work with JS switched off anyway.

Much better, if you're going to use FP or any WYSIWYG editor - use it properly and check your code as you go along in various browsers plus ensure that you're using valid code to help make browsers' lives easier.



d a v e -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/19/2008 8:18:04)

and there's a big difference betweem IE7 and IE6 too, though sadly still not enough :)



michaelea -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/20/2008 12:47:21)

2 or 3 simple (in retrospect) solutions worked for me - regarding IE's - consistently inconsistent code interpretations. Here's a bit of a list:

I purchased EW and now use BOTH EW and FP

EW Teaches you to be a better coder. Period!

Use .CSS all the time

This line in a css file solved about 70% of my problems: * {margin: 0; padding: 0;}
This line solved 10% of my problems: img {border: 0;}
Another 12% with this inliner: <form style="padding-bottom: 0".............

I still have a few issues but.....those steps above were miracle cures for me coding with FP and EW

HTH



womble -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/20/2008 14:23:09)

quote:

ORIGINAL: d a v e

er, womble i'll let you answer that one :)


In order to avoid wasting time typing, I'd just refer readers to my earlier answer: http://www.frontpagewebmaster.com/m-379487/tm.htm#381347

Lesson 1 in Web Design 101, as in business, the customer (visitor) is always right, so don't try messing with their own preferences or you lose yourself a customer/visitor!



blue101 -> RE: Front Page Sites Look Different in Firefox (1/22/2008 1:01:32)

My daughter's has an internet radio station. She added a scrolling marque on her programming page and tested it in all the browsers...everything looked fine in all the browsers except Opera . The marque went crazy in Opera and she never could get it fixed so she just added to the bottom of her pages..not totally compatible in all browsers...still getting the same amount of hits with Opera users.

blue101



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