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Answer 1

+5 A:

IE6 is a known disaster in the way it handles CSS. Your best bet is to use a virtual machine or an old system that has IE6 on it and use that for testing. However, there are some decent tools out there that will emulate IE6 for the most part. My favourite is IETester. There's an online tool at browsershots.org that's not bad either, but I find it's not consistent sometimes.

Your best approach is to create a separate stylesheet that is for IE6 only, and leave the rest of your CSS in working condition. You can load an IE6 only stylesheet by using the following in your HTML <head>:

<!--[if IE 6]>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="IE-6-SPECIFIC.css" />
<![endif]-->

Once that's loaded, you can start overriding your usual styles that are having problems in IE6.

zombat 2009-08-07 02:34:35

Zombat's got it perfect. Use a virtualized PC with IE6, and use conditional comments to correct *only* IE6 - everyone else will see it as a normal comment and ignore it.I find that programs that emulate ie6 don't do it well enough to really ensure that you're doing it right.

Xanthir 2009-08-07 16:38:27

IETester is what I use. Came here to suggest that very thing. As with any emulator, there may be some things it doesn't portray with 100% accuracy but I have yet to run into a problem with it.

monkeypushbutton 2009-09-02 13:11:13

Answer 2

A:

If your layout is very simple, try the CSS framework BluePrint. It works well on IE6

ראובן 2009-08-07 02:36:00

Answer 3

+3 A:

First up, it would serve you well to download virtual pc and the IE compatibility testing VHDs from here http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en, I have also used IEtester as mentioned by zombat, but prefer the VPC images.

You can then test your app against different flavours of IE.

For the sake of getting IE 6 to work, I often resort to a separate CSS sheet for it, and link this using conditional comments http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537512(VS.85).aspx

Good Luck :)

seanb 2009-08-07 02:37:07

Answer 4

+1 A:

IE 6 has a number of bugs in its CSS box model, causing sites that are correctly coded to break under that browser. It is possible using the box model hack and other workarounds to resolve these issues, so its a matter of getting IE 6. Here is a list of common fixes for IE 6 box model problems

To Solve the IE 6 Problem - my favorite option is to install an IE emulator that lets you run multiple versions of internet explorere. This one is pretty good, although there are others. Another common way is to create a virtual machine running IE 6 or dual booting (both can be time consuming and a pain, but vertainly doable). I prefer to use an emulator when I can.

PortageMonkey 2009-08-07 02:39:10

Answer 5

A:

Create a stylesheet that is specific to fixing IE6 issues, and call it with a conditional statement (which only IE supports). Below is an example of what you should include in the head of your document:

<!--[lte IE 7]> 
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="ie6.css" />
<![endif]-->

You might also want to consider "resetting" your CSS, which helps to start browsers off on a level playing field (i.e., getting rid of inconsistent margins and padding in IE). The one that I use can be found here, and Yahoo! offers a decent reset stylesheet as part of YUI 3.

As for being able to debug your own markup and style in IE6, these are the two options that I suggest: Xenocode's Browser Sandbox virtualizes browsers (IE6, IE7, IE8, FF2, FF3, Chrome, Opera 9, Safari 3, Safari 4) on your PC without having to install the actual application, and IETester, which is pretty buggy but let's you render your markup in IE6, IE7, and IE8 without having to install them.

Intelekshual 2009-08-07 16:14:19

Answer 6

A:

If you have a Win2K license, grab VirtualBox, install Win2K on it with IE6, and test the page from there. That's how I do most of my testing without actually having to install IE6.

If it weren't something you were doing for a specific client, but the web at large, I'd recommend using the code from IE6 No More!

Chris Doggett 2009-08-07 16:23:19

Answer 7

+4 A:

Andrew Moore 2009-08-07 16:27:33

Even in standards mode, IE6's layout/CSS/Javascript abilities are, er, 'limited', but this is step 1 in IE6 porting.

ijw 2009-09-02 13:15:52

Answer 8

A:

install IETeaster for testing in different version of IE browser. here you can find out where the problem is arising

2009-08-08 08:28:18

Answer 9

A:

I guess, Under the W3C box model, a box having a width of 100px, with 2px padding on each side, a 3px border, and 7px margin on each side, will have a visible width of 114px. not 124 as W3C excludes the padding and border from the width/height of an element.

2009-09-02 13:03:28

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