Getting Your Blog Ready for Internet Explorer 7

“Details on Microsoft Internet Explorer CSS Changes for IE7” from the IEBlog is an updated list of all the supposed CSS bug fixes for the next version of Internet Explorer.

In the long list of fixed IE bugs are resources to help you test your web page designs for the next version of Internet Explorer:

We have provided a set of documentation and tools to help you transition your pages to IE7:

• The IE 7 Readiness Toolkit pulls together documentation, tools, and guidance for developers, testers, and ITPros to prepare sites, extensions and applications for IE 7.
• The Cascading Style Sheet Compatibility in Internet Explorer 7 – documentation on common breaking patterns and techniques you can do to avoid them.
• Developer and ITPro Checklists
• The IE Developer Center is the clearinghouse for all (past and present) IE developer information.
• We have an Application Compatibility Toolkit that logs and identifies changes in behavior due to changes in IE 7 and Vista.
• All of this is wrapped up for you in the Information Index for IE 7.

Finally, as we’ve talked about before, we have a Web Developer Toolbar, which is a great aid during the development and debugging of a website.

I applaud the Microsoft Internet Explorer team for finally getting things done that should have been done over five years ago, though I’m also ready for new bugs that may appear requiring more oddball fixes. This means increased testing and monitoring of the browser bug experts blogs.

More importantly, I’m worried about backwards compatibility. Come on, folks, how many people around the world are really going to race to get Internet Explorer 7? Well, they won’t have to race. According to a lot of rumors coming from Microsoft, it will be forced upon all Windows XP systems through the automatic updates.

Yet, what about the fact that a majority of international users are still working with Windows 98, WindowsME, or the first Windows XP, a highly buggy version? Or not working with any Microsoft operating system, having made cheaper or open source decisions? Even more are using illegal versions of Windows, so upgrading Internet Explorer risks exposure.

Mozilla Firefox has also put a huge dent into Internet Explorer’s market, as have other Internet Browsers. For many, IE7 will have to do a song and dance and wash windows, literally, before they will go back to IE. But because they are still using Windows XP, the installation and upgrade will go ahead, adding who knows what else to their system, even though they never or rarely use Internet Explorer.

So I worry about my web page designs, hoping the new Internet Explorer will honor backwards compatibility.

Internet Explorer 7 Will Ignore Old Browser Hacks

In “Cascading Style Sheet Compatibility in Internet Explorer 7”, IE developers explain that the old browser hacks will continue to work in IE7 because they will be ignored.

For example, for previous versions of Internet Explorer, you could use * html followed by code that ONLY talked to Internet Explorer. So you would have two versions of instructions. The one that worked for the rest of the browsers and the version that worked only for Internet Explorer.

By ignoring the * html instructions, Internet Explorer 7 will then only read the version that worked for the rest of the browsers. So if your web design included two versions to accommodate the various browsers, IE7 shouldn’t impact your layout or design. If you didn’t, and only designed for IE, then you will have to produce another version of your code to make it work in IE7. Such has been the problems working with buggy browsers.

This creates a form of backwards compatibility, but I still take a wait and see attitude. I’ve traveled and taught Internet and Web programs internationally for many years, and I think I have a pretty good idea of the technology the average users is using.

Don’t throw away all your IE hacks immediately. If IE7 ignores them, then leave them there for the rest of the world who will not be using Internet Explorer 7. In two, three, or five years, you can remove them. You might even have more to replace them. Be patient with this, web designers. Wait, watch, and pay close attention.

Related Articles

• Web Page Design: Talking Only to Internet Explorer
• CSS and Web Page Design List of Resources
• Rules of Smart and Successful Web Development and Web Design
• Usability Isn’t Expensive. It’s Practical. Usability is Useful.
• Boycott Ugly Table Designed Blogs and Websites
• Your blog will only be as good as its weakest component
• CSS Maintainability – Serious Style Sheets
• Website Development – Redesign Versus Realign
• Website Design Psychology
• Research and Choices You Make in Website Designs Can Make or Break Your Website

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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network