Browser displays page differently

[lane416]

When I view my webpage in Netscape all looks great, then I look at in in IE and the formating is off. Is their a way I can make IE keep the format?

[Budfred]

Welcome to

I believe you can, but only within limitations and with a price. IE and Netscape use different standards for their pages, so it is difficult to get them to stay the same. I use Netscape and I can't even view some pages made for IE. There are software programs available that can at least partially reconcile them, but they will probably cost money and can be a steep learning curve.

Budfred

[mjc]

Usually it is the other way around......the page looks fine in IE but not NS!

Netscape, Mozilla, Opera all are much more compliant with the standards of html than IE is (MS would like to be the one setting them, but they aren't). IE will use ActiveX tomake up for the "lack" in some cases. Also pages created by certain software tend to more optimized towardone browser or the other. Frontpage, of course liking IE much better....

[david eaton]

The problem is also partly due to the fact that HTML is not a page layout method like a DTP program. It merely describes the TYPE of text as body, headline, bold, etc, and lets the browser decide how it will display it.
One way round some of the variations between Netscape and IE is to use style sheets, and stick to tags/styles that are consistent across browsers. And I can assure you it's the H*** of a game sometimes to make HTML do what you want!

David

[Paul Komski]

What software did you use to make your webpage and was it desktop or on-line software? Post the url here if you like.

Also bear in mind that different versions of browsers will have different results too.

And also ensure that the relevant browsers are both configured as similarly as possible. For example if you are using javascript/frames etc, these would need to be enabled (or capable of being used) in whichever browsers you are using.

Agree with David that css can be a very useful way of "styelising" things for those using IE and Netscape (versions 4 or later); notably for the text and bacground anyways.