PUB98: Web Pages Appear Differently in Different Browsers (178608)

SUMMARY

Web pages created with Publisher may appear differently when you view them using different Web browsers. When you view a Web page with Microsoft Internet Explorer, for example, it may appear differently than if you view it with Netscape Navigator or Mosaic.

Here are some of the things that are likely to appear differently with different browsers:

Spacing between lines of text
Text wrap and text alignment
Placement of pictures
Fonts, text size, and text color
The background color of text frames

MORE INFORMATION

This issue actually affects all Web pages, not just those created with Publisher. However, because Publisher supports some very complicated layouts, the differences may be more obvious.

When you create a Web page, what you really get is a text-only document that contains instructions for a Web browser to use to re-create a richly formatted page. To keep these files as small as possible, the instructions are generic. Different Web browsers interpret these instructions slightly differently. For example, a Web page may instruct a Web browser to align some text in a table with the top of its cell, but the exact distance between the top of the table cell and the top of the text is left up to the Web browser.

In addition, not every Web browser understands the same set of instructions. Software companies frequently expand the features of their browsers, then other companies add the same features later. If a Web browser does not understand an instruction, it typically ignores it.

Finally, a Web page can contain instructions about what fonts the Web browser should use, but it does not contain the fonts themselves. For example, if you create a Web page that uses some text in the Rockwell Condensed font, that text will appear differently on a computer that does not have Rockwell Condensed installed.

These issues are not specific to Publisher; they are issues that occur with all Web publishing tools and browsers.

If you do not know which Web browser your audience will be using, it is a good idea to have several different browsers installed at the same time. That way you can get several different opinions about how your Web page should look before you actually post it to the World Wide Web.

If you do not want to have several Web browsers on one computer, you can have Publisher post your Web Site to a floppy disk. You can then take the floppy disk to several different computers that have different Web browsers installed and view the Web Site on the floppy disk under each browser.

To view a Web Site from a floppy disk using Internet Explorer, follow these steps:

Put the disk in the A: or B: drive.
Start Internet Explorer.
On the File menu, click Open.
In the Open dialog box, click Browse.
Change to the A: or B: drive.
Click the file called Index.html, Index.htm, Default.html, or Default.htm.

You should be able to follow a similar set of steps for other Web browsers.