Is there any possibility of rendering differences betweeen firefox 3 and 3.5 and IE 7 and 8, even if we are not using any new css 3 property/selector?

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Is there any possibility of rendering differences betweeen firefox 3 and 3.5 and IE 7 and 8, even if we are not using any new css 3 property/selector?

I'm making a site for European client and he said Firefox 3 and IE 7 and 8 has more user than others browser for desktop in Europe http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-eu-monthly-200812-201001-bar

I've only IE 7 and Firefox 3.5.7 installed in my PC.

Should I download portable Firefox 3.0 and test in it too even if I'm not using any new css property/selector which only has support in Firefox 3.5 or testing in 3.5.7 would be enough?

And for IE testing in IE 7 would be enough or should i check my site in IE8 (downloading VPC image of IE8 and testing in VM) even if I'm not using any new css property/selector which only has support in IE8?

Or is it necessary to use <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" /> in <head> ?

But what will happen when user will switch compatibility mode to IE 8 default rendering mode?

Can we make site compatible in IE 7 and 8 both without using <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />? If yes, then what special we need to do.care/consider in css to make site identical in both?

You don't necessarily need to download all the copies, but yes, there is a larger possibility of a difference between IE7 and IE8, though they should be minimized if not eliminated by your meta tag. I highly recommend you don't use that meta tag and just check for differences that might be able to be easily fixed. Since IE8 has come out, I have never had to use the meta tag to fix any problems or differences. I still use IE conditional comments to add rules for fixing differences in IE6 + IE7.

There is much less of a concern between Firefox 3 and 3.5 if you are not using CSS3 or -moz specific selectors.

Either download IETester (IE only) or used Adobe Browser Labs (both) to check IE8 and Firefox 3 as a precaution before launch.

Doug Neiner 2010-01-15 06:17:37

is it necessary to use <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />? what will happen when user will switch compatibility mode to IE 8 default rendering mode?

metal-gear-solid 2010-01-15 06:21:06

You should build the site without that `meta` tag and use conditionals to fix IE7 where needed. If the user changes from the default IE8 rendering to compatibility mode you still would not have a problem.

Doug Neiner 2010-01-15 06:22:57

jeffamaphone 2010-01-15 17:02:36

@jeffamaphone... why? I use both the VMs and IEtester depending on if I am in my office or on the road... never had a problem between them.

Doug Neiner 2010-01-15 21:10:40

It's worth testing the site in all browser to ensure that it is working correctly. Another way to test is to use the browser sandbox here: http://spoon.net/browsers/

IE8 is alot more standards compliant then previous versions of IE so if you are designing for FF 3.5 then you shouldn't have too many problems with IE8. It's worth using conditional comments as Dough mentioned to target IE7 or IE6 - http://www.quirksmode.org/css/condcom.html

Consider using this website checklist - http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/checklist.html as once you have validated your html and css and gone through most of the other points then you will be well on your way to having the site display properly across all browsers

2010-01-15 10:54:35

I do dev testing using IEtester, been using it for about a year and it's been 100% correct in rendering CSS when compared to the stand alone versions of IE6,7,8. It's also very good for tweaking CSS and quickly seeing the impact.

From a general perspective I normally have alot more issues between IE6 and other browsers, while IE7 and IE8 are very similar in most regards.

Alex 2010-01-15 11:04:33

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Is there any possibility of rendering differences betweeen firefox 3 and 3.5 and IE 7 and 8, even if we are not using any new css 3 property/selector?

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