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How Users' Browsers Affect What You See

The major browsers in use are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Users do not necessarily have the latest versions installed.

There are other browsers such as Opera and Lynx that have fewer users, but loyal users.

Just because your course page looks good with your browser doesn't mean it looks good with your students!

In addition to a multitude of browsers that display pages differently, some HTML editors create HTML that is not standard, and can't be viewed by all browsers.

What are some obvious differences between the two major browsers?

If you can see this word blinking, you are using some version of Netscape Navigator. Netscape supports the <blink> tag, while Microsoft Internet Explorer does not. This is a very shallow example of the differences. There are more serious issues.

What steps can you take to minimize problems for your students?

1. Create HTML that conforms to the existing standard as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium.

2. Use the alt tag for all images on your web site. Include descriptive text in the alt tag so that students using a text-only browser or a text reader can have a description of the images.

Many graphical HTML editors have a text box for alt text that you can fill in when you insert an image.

What if you want to use Dynamic HTML?

Using Dynamic HTML (DHTML) it is possible to incorporate a large amount of interactivity into your web site. DHTML is a combination of HTML 4.0 and a scripting language such as JavaScript, JScript or VBScript.

You can produce some pedagogically strong web pages using DHTML that make it very tempting to do. However there are some pitfalls.

DHTML that you can create for Microsoft Internet Explorer either does not display or does not work with Netscape Navigator.

Should you and can you design your web site for every conceivable browser variation?

Theoretically, if you design your web pages to the World Wide Web Consortium standard, they will be viewable by every browser that conforms to the standard. This means not using the proprietary extensions to HTML and DHTML that Netscape and Microsoft make available.

You can specify one or more browsers that are recommended for your course. Students who register in your course would be expected to download and install one of the supported browsers.

However, you should realize that there are vast differences in capabilities among the browsers and make some allowances while designing your course site.

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