When creating a website -- Why does it appear different in IE than Firefox?

Question

So I created a pretty basic website for my company for a new add campaign.

HTML, Host, FTP, Publish and you're done.

I've got one MP3 and 4 PDFs linked on the site, but here is my curiosity:

I created with NVu and published, all while creating/editing in Mozilla Firefox. The site looks crisp and perfect in Mozilla, but when somebody opens the URL in Internet Explorer the link sizes are all different, the fonts are different sizes, etc..

Can somebody with experience shed some light on this for me? I'm stumped.

Thanks!!

Answer 1

It is because Forefox and IE are different programs, and use different "interpreters" to read the web pages. They treat some of the HTML commands differently. WHen developing a page, you always have to check it in both browsers, and on multiple computers. If you use a non-standard font, for example, on you page, and someone opens it on a computer that does not have the font, IE will suptitute either Arial or New Times Romans for the missing font, changing the page.

There are simple javascript programs that you can download that will detect what browser a person is using. Then, you can set your page so that if someone is using IE they are redirected to version of you web page designed to work best with IE. If they are using Firefox they are directed to a different version of the page.

Oh, and don't forget about Opera or Safari - both which display pages differently also....

Answer 2

Could it be a simple matter of the other person having their monitor set differently. For example, you may have your monitor set for 1024 x 768 and they may have theirs set for 800 x 600. So with that in mind, here's my little speech for today. Half the people in the world set their monitors to 800 x 600. They do this for many reasons, but they do it. Therefore, when designing a web site, always design it to fit on an 800 screen. 795 is a good figure because the scroll bar always takes up space. My guess is that you have designed the site margins for something larger than 800 and maybe you're using percentages for some of your table widths. Also, as you guessed, there are differences in the way Firefox and IE display things. Generally though, simple sites usually work okay on both browsers.

Edit: I just read dewcoons answer above. His comment about fonts is important and I overlooked that. You must use web safe fonts. These are fonts that are on every computer. 99.9% of fonts are NOT web safe. Also, can yo please include the URL so that we can go there to find the problem.