Based on my own research, cross browser compatibility seems to be the thorn that is in every web designer’s side. Taking a mock up design and coding it to look the way it’s meant to be in all browsers at times, seems like an impossible task. I know when I’ve hacked WordPress themes, getting them to appear correctly in both IE 7 and FireFox 2 was such a pain, I would end up going for the (good enough) approach.
Thankfully, Anthony Short has put together a list of coding conventions ( How To Get Cross Browser Compatibility Every Time ) based on his research that will help get the job done on the first try.
This is a summary of what Anthony Covers in his post:
- Always use strict doctype and standards-compliant HTML/CSS
- Always usea reset at the start of your css
- Use -moz-opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Firefox, and
text-shadow: #000 0 0 0 in Safari - Never resize images in the CSS or HTML
- Check font rendering in every browser. Don’t use Lucida
- Size text as a % in the body, and as em’s throughout
- All layout divs that are floated should include display:inline and
overflow:hidden - Containers should have overflow:auto and trigger hasLayout via a width or
height - Don’t use any fancy CSS3 selectors
- Don’t use transparent PNG’s unless you have loaded the alpha
In his research, Anthony only worried about FireFox 2, Safari3+ and IE6.
So if you are creating a theme or any web design for that matter, keep these conventions in mind so you’ll spend more time designing and less time refreshing browser windows.
Original post by jeff
