Internet Explorer 7

[drummin]

Anyone checked out their work in IE7?

I have a site (over 1000 pages) which looks fine in FF and IE6.
I just installed IE7 and my site looks all different.
I believe I have fonts defined throughout site in any case will look into that issue.
Anyone else notice differences in sites with this browser?

Seems that possibly BOLD is larger... Should that be defined?
Do we need to add seperate style just for this browser?
I just restored IE6 but should look into getting site to look good in IE7 as well.
As if we don't have enough problems getting sites to look the same across browsers... Hey, let's add another.

[speed]

I've seen quite a few peoples sites break in IE7, in a lot of cases it was to do with the hacks added to make IE6 work.

Remove the hacks and IE7 works but not IE6, lucky there are conditional comments.

Overall I've found IE7 much more inclined to work the same as Firefox, but a few times I have had IE6 and 7 mutually exclusive.

The thing I noticed is IE7 switched cleartype on which changed the size of the fonts to be slightly larger now.

I wouldn't add another style sheet, I'm sticking to my current practice of adding an extra wrapper or two to overcome issues in IE6, so that the CSS is not conditional and hack free.

[drummin]

Hey Speed thanks for the reply.
I figured you'd be on top of this.

I never use hacks... just avoid margins as much as possible so things look about the same in FF and IE6.

Problem is, I've used an image background for "heading bars" on many pages. Larger fonts now are heightening these bars showing background behind.

Is there a good way to define fonts and boldness size that would standardise all three browsers?
FF and IE6 have looked good. Hate to add a hack for IE7. Hoping for better way.
Thanks,
Drummin

[speed]

I've not found a way yet to make the font exactly the same on all browsers.

However you have to remember that some users will scale their font up to make it easier to read, therefore you would still have this same problem.

Personally I don't worry about variations in text sizes between browsers and try to adjust the design to scale.

The only fixes I can suggest are to make the background image scale around the text or appear to, or use a completely graphical element.

[Tim]

I've had a few issues with IE7 recently but all have been fairly easily overcome with conditional comments. My main bugbear was that having installed IE7 to check my sites, I was unable to access the dreaded IE6 anymore and, like most, that's the browser I have biggest problems with.

However, I have just come across a clever free registry tweaking installation that not only allows IE6 to standalone but also enables every IE version back to 3!

If you have already installed IE7, go to http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE to get the installation package that makes other versions of IE standalone.

If you haven't already installed IE7, go to http://tredosoft.com/IE7_standalone to get instructions or an installation to make IE7 standalone.

Perversely, I'm happy to get IE6 back!

[WebMasterKrames]

Originally Posted by speed

I've not found a way yet to make the font exactly the same on all browsers.

Try definign a pixel size for the fonts rather than leaving them at the defaults or using a different font size unit such as "ems". I.E.:

font-size: 12px;

rather than:

font-size: 12em;
or
font-size: 12;

This has helped me quite a bit get more consistent layouts.

[speed]

If you use px then the visitor can't resize the text to their preference.

[drummin]

What I've found most different to the weight of bold text. Would like to know what's the best way to define bold. Also notice padding in tables acting a little different, acting more like a margin.

Would you write...

b {weight:700;}

[WebMasterKrames]

Originally Posted by speed

If you use px then the visitor can't resize the text to their preference.

I don't know where you got that from. I just tried it on this site I did: www.ontopoftheworldinfo.com and it resizing text through the browser worked fine in both FF and IE.

[speed]

Not here it doesn't, in IE7 using the Page > Text Size menu has no effect on the size of the text.

Firefox does scale the font.

[Tim]

You're right Speed but it does if you use Ctrl and plus (+) or minus (-).

Edit: Oops...that's zoom though!

[speed]

Well that's new since IE6, shows home much I've used IE7.

[Spectur]

So when will M$ finally start following standards so we don't have to do all these dumb work arounds.. Or does Big Bill think that IE is the only browser on the market that people use ? IT is just very frustrating that M$ can nnot follow accepted standards...

[WebMasterKrames]

Probably never. They don't have to. IE will continue to be the most commonly used browser for many years to come. One day it may be 50/50 FF users and IE users, but I don't forsee that being for a while.