website style fine in IE but goes mental when in firefox

[LazyManc]

IE7 is not standards compliant. That's why there is the conditional comments.

My sites don't look any different in FF but i would rather create it working in IE6 & 7 then look at it FF. IE is the mahority browser

You're missing the point - every web developer worth their salt will make a site compatible with all major browsers, so the market share is a moot point. What we're talking about is ease of workflow - it's just far simpler to build a standards compliant site that works in FF / Safari / Opera / etc and then add hacks for IE, than it is to target IE first and then have to backtrack for the other browsers.

However, it's still a major PitA to get IE6 compatibility. Thankfully we can pretty much ignore 5.5 these days.

Linking to an image with swearing is a bad idea.

 

[robmiller]

I would have to disagree there. IE, between the two versions, has >80% of the browser market share so i design for IE first then check it out in FF because there is no point in basing your design and testing arround something that only 15% of the viewers of your site will use.

It's invariably far easier to hack a standards-based design to work in IE than it is to get an IE-only design working in standards-compliant browsers. Most people who design in a standards-compliant browser first are just doing so because it's easier, not because of some misplaced arrogance.

 

[davetherave2]

I wasn't ware that this was such an issue. I am glad I asked the question now.

So in your eyes the best way is to develop a site in FF and then apply these IE conditional statements to the site.
Am I correct in thinking that IE 8.0 will be more standards compliant and can pass the (ACID test. Think thats what it is called). Does this mean that every site that looks ok now will have to be fixed if IE is rendering the code to a more standards level.

oh I have changed the link as well to the following:

www.online.zibrant.co.uk/allocationsonline

This was so I could enable SSL for the guarantee section and personal details.

 

[Tripnologist]

So in your eyes the best way is to develop a site in FF and then apply these IE conditional statements to the site.
Am I correct in thinking that IE 8.0 will be more standards compliant and can pass the (ACID test. Think thats what it is called). Does this mean that every site that looks ok now will have to be fixed if IE is rendering the code to a more standards level.

Yes. Personally, I code a section, make sure it looks right in FF and then just use IEtab to switch over to IE6 for a quick look. Long ago, I got to the point where I don't really need to do this anymore but it's still handy in the event I've missed something or stumbled upon one of the very rare bugs.

Regarding IE8, don't worry. You'll have to add a meta tag if you want IE8 to render at it's most strict level. Still not sure if this is a good idea or not.