Newsletter

Subscribe to our mailing list

July 14, 2011
Your Website & Internet Explorer

Your Website & Internet Explorer


We've all used Internet Explore, some of us still are using it (we won't judge as long as it isn't version 6) If you're not a designer / developer then you may not know much difference between different IE versions or even different browsers. Now if you are a designer / developer you probably grumble or cringed just at the mention of it. Now we're not here to bash it, that's too easy. Let's talk about some or if you want you can just skip ahead to the bugs & fixes.

IE is notorious for displaying websites, well we'll just say different. Though it gets better with newer and newer versions, it is still an issue. What it comes down to is there are various technologies available to enhance websites, such as CSS3 and HTML5, and IE doesn't always support these or they support them incorrectly. The newest version, IE9, has some of these issues but it is a great improvement from 6.

What this means to a client / business owner

When IE displays something differently than all other browsers, your web developer has to spend more time trying to fix or 'hack' your site which means more cost for you.

What this means to a developer

You waste more time on what seems to be unnecessary code. It is usually sloppy, invalid, and not easy to scale or upgrade. Sometimes there aren't even 'hacks' and really great methods and designs are unusable.

What Should I Do?

The most important thing is to know your target audience. If you're trying to reach young developers, they are probably using the latest version of Firefox. If you're trying to reach old knitting grandmothers, they are probably using IE6 (maybe even Netscape Navigator).

IE Stats

In 2007 over half of the users were on IE. Currently only 23% use IE. Out of those 23%, 2.3% are on IE 6, 4.4% are on IE 7, 12.9% are on IE 8 and 3.6% are on IE 9. As a general rule of thumb, we do not support IE 6 any longer. Upon request we can put a message up for those on IE 6 telling them they are in a very old version of IE and it is a good idea to update their browser for best results.

As you can tell, other browsers are gaining market share and IE is loosing market share. We hope eventually they will get their issue worked out so they perform with compliant standard code. Until then, we will continue to insert IE hacks.

Firefox leads all browsers with 42.2% of users while chrome comes in second with 27.9%.

IE Bugs & Fixes

IE7 inline-block Bug
IE7 just does not support inline-block, which is a bummer because it's pretty useful, but we can trick ie 7 with this:

.class { display: inline; zoom: 1; }

.class { *display: inline; *zoom: 1; }

.ie7 .class { display: inline; zoom: 1; }

To target IE7 specifically you can add an * right before each attribute but I prefer conditional classes. This is were you use conditional comments to determine if it is IE and if so which version. If so, it applies a class.

IE7 z-index Bug
IE7 supports z-index but it can be buggy sometimes. This bug is a little less common than the above one but you still may encounter it from time to time. In Internet Explorer positioned elements generate a new stacking context, starting with a z-index value of 0. Therefore z-index doesn’t work correctly. To fix this you just give the parent element a higher z-index than the child. Remember, you still have to position any elements using z-index or else the z-index will just be ignored.

<p style="z-index: 3000"> <p style="z-index: 1000;"> </p>

I generally like to keep hacks separate, even if they are valid code, it's just not intuitive. So in this case I would put the z-index in a css file and use conditional classes to apply a higher z-index on the parent.

Read our next post...

Events DNN Summit 2021 Follow-Up

Marketing Creating Video Content on a Budget

Web Dev Maximize Your Website’s ROI with Affordable Usability Testing

Marketing Less is More: Optimize Your Website Content

Marketing More UX Myths...Debunked

Marketing The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing During COVID-19

Marketing Are You Prepared to Run an Effective Remote Team?

Marketing We Are Business As Usual… And Here to Help

Marketing Make the Most of Your Digital Marketing Budget

Marketing 4 Digital New Year’s Resolutions That Will Make Your Business More Money

Web Dev Are You Making These 6 Website Mistakes? Consider an Audit

Events Behind-the-Scenes on our New Brand Video

Marketing How to Create Facebook Posts That Command Attention

Marketing 10 Common UX Myths

Marketing 6 Reasons Your Business Needs a Blog

Events ADA Website Compliance Webinar

Web Dev With 2285 lawsuits in 2018, is your website ADA compliant?

Modules Increase E-commerce Sales with Nosto’s Content Personalization

Marketing Smarter Email with SharpSpring

Web Dev 10 Pound Gorilla Named as a Top Developer in Denver!

DNN Hangout with the Gorilla Girl

Events DNN Summit 2019 Follow-Up

Events Heli-Expo 2019

DNN, Events DNN Summit 2019

Marketing Business Tips for the New Year

Web Dev 10 Pound Gorilla Recognized as Top Web Design Firm in US for 2018

DNN, Web Dev Exciting News for 10 Pound Gorilla

Marketing What Has 10 Pound Gorilla Been Up To & Why It Can Help You Grow

DNN We’ve Made Friends Far and Away

DNN, Marketing, Web Dev 2018 DNN Summit Sessions

Marketing Influencers Influence, Followers Follow

We Secured $25,000 in Grants for Our Client – We Can Help You Too!

Marketing 5 “Must Do” Items to Enhance Your Marketing

Marketing Retargeting: Never Lose Sight Of Your Website Visitor

Web Dev Quality Websites Need Quality Typography

Marketing Web Development Meets Web Analytics: The Knowledge Gap

Web Dev Responsive Design: It's More Than Just Design

Marketing Economic Summit 2017

Marketing Mary Meeker's Global Internet Trends

Marketing, Web Dev A/B Testing: Getting the Most out of Your Site

Marketing, Web Dev Upping the Ante: Interactive Content

Marketing, Web Dev Google’s SEO Best Practices: A Starter Guide

Marketing Creating Timeless Content to Boost SEO

Marketing, Web Dev 2017 Research Recognizes 10 Pound Gorilla as a Leader in SEO

Marketing, Web Dev Designing an Elegant Website using Whitespace

Marketing, Web Dev Test Your Website’s Success Using Heat Maps

Marketing Start Fresh, & Advertise with Facebook!

DNN, Marketing, Web Dev 2017 DNN Summit Sessions

Marketing, Web Dev Web Design: The Past, The Present, & The Future

Marketing, Web Dev Intrusive Pop-Ups to be Penalized by Google

Marketing The New Wave of Advertising: Native Ads

DNN, Web Dev Proud Sponsor of DNN Summit 2017

Marketing Moving to Mobile

Marketing, Video Power of Video

DNN If you’re a DNN user, your site could be vulnerable to hackers

Marketing, Video The Art of Retargeting: How it works and Why You Should Retarget

DNN, Marketing, Web Dev 10 Pound Gorilla Named Top Ten Denver Web Development and Digital Marketing Agency by Clutch.co

Marketing 10 Tips to Design Your Website for Lead Generation

DNN, Marketing, Modules, Web Dev DNNCON: Thank You!

Marketing 10 Ways to Incorporate Direct Response Marketing with Print Media

DNN, Marketing, Web Dev 10 Pound Gorilla... One of Denver's Top 10 Digital Marketing Agencies

Marketing How to Turn Social Media Fans Into New Customers

Marketing Your Facebook Likes No Longer Matter!

Web Dev Is Google Going to Penalize Non-Mobile-Friendly Websites?

DNN DNNCON: Thank You!

DNN, Modules, Web Dev From Ordinary To Extraordinary

DNN, Marketing, Modules How to Sell, Quote or Budget for a DNN E-commerce Website

Web Dev Getting Users to "Respond" to Your Mobile Menu Designs

DNN, Web Dev DNNCON: Editor.css

Marketing Getting The Conversion

Marketing Tips for Writing Effective Newsletters

Marketing Why Should You Have a Newsletter?

Marketing Writing Copy That Will Actually Be Read

DNN Editor.css: Giving You & Your Clients Less Headaches

DNN, Web Dev Connall Cosmetic Surgery: Case Study

Web Dev Making the Case for a Responsive Site

DNN, Modules, Web Dev March Module Madness: Dynamic Forms

DNN, Modules, Web Dev March Module Madness: Ventrian News Articles

DNN, Modules, Web Dev March Module Madness: Form & List

Marketing 5 Tips to Online Marketing

Marketing How the Name "10 Pound Gorilla" Came to Be

Marketing Creative Online Marketing: Groupon & Living Social

Marketing Promoting Your Business With Instagram

Marketing Using Your Blog to Boost SEO

Marketing Surprising Social Media Facts & What You Should Do

DNN, Web Dev DNN Con 2013: Mobile Navigation

DNN, Web Dev DNN Con 2013: Determining What Makes the Mobile Cut

DNN, Modules, Web Dev DNN Con 2013: DDR And JQuery. More Than Just Hover And Drop Down.

Web Dev A Mobile-First Approach to the Web

DNN Southern Fried DNN: Best of both worlds: Great Design and Flexibility

DNN Southern Fried DNN: Different skin designs from just one skin file

Web Dev The Future of the Web: HTML5

DNN Dot Net Nuke World 2012 Speakers & Sponsors

Marketing Google Places is now Google+ Local

DNN, Marketing Day of DNN - Using DNN to Feed Data to Several Social Portals

DNN, Marketing Day of DNN - Easy to Use Strategies for Writing & Submitting Articles to Increase Inbound Links

DNN, Marketing Day of DNN - How to Optimize Your Socialization

DNN Guest Speakers at Day of DNN!

Marketing Enticing Your Followers with Fresh Content: A How To Guide

DNN, Web Dev What Can Website Templates Do For You?

Marketing Getting Up in the Ranks Through SEO

DNN, Modules Best DNN Shopping Cart

Marketing Enter into the "Timeline"

Marketing Making Your Facebook Business Page Secure

Marketing Get Your Tweet-Face On

DNN, Marketing Google Analytics and DNN

Marketing What is Social Media and What Can It Do for You

DNN Advantages of DotNetNuke

Web Dev 8 Ways to Increase Website Speed

Marketing Beyond Facebook and Twitter, Get "In" with Social Media

Web Dev 8 Great Website Development Tools

Web Dev Your Website & Internet Explorer

Marketing What is Google +1

Web Dev What is "The Cloud"?

Our Story
What makes us different?
+

Succeed

Contact 10 Pound Gorilla Today
for Your Free Consultation