Checking for cross-browser CSS rendering issues

Note: This article is repurposed from the Dreamweaver CS3 help system. Although written for Dreamweaver CS3, the content is still valid.

Frustrated with pesky browser rendering bugs related to your CSS? This little article shows you how Dreamweaver can help you solve your problems quickly and efficiently.

The new Browser Compatibility Check (BCC) feature in Dreamweaver CS3 helps you locate combinations of HTML and CSS that have problems in certain browsers. When you run a BCC on an open file, Dreamweaver scans the file and reports any potential CSS rendering issues in the Results panel. A confidence rating, indicated by a quarter, half, three-quarter, or completely filled circle, indicates the likelihood of the bug’s occurrence (a quarter-filled circle indicating a possible occurrence, and a completely-filled circle indicating a very likely occurrence). For each potential bug that it finds, Dreamweaver also provides a direct link to documentation about the bug on Adobe CSS Advisor, a website that details commonly known browser rendering bugs, and offers solutions for fixing them.

By default, the BCC feature checks against the following browsers: Firefox 1.5; Internet Explorer (Windows) 6.0 and 7.0; Internet Explorer (Macintosh) 5.2; Netscape Navigator 8.0; Opera 8.0 and 9.0; Safari 2.0.

This feature replaces the former Target Browser Check feature, but retains the CSS functionality of that feature. That is, the new BCC feature still tests the code in your documents to see if any of the CSS properties or values are unsupported by your target browsers.

Three levels of potential browser-support problems can arise:

• An error indicates CSS code that might cause a serious visible problem in a particular browser, such as causing parts of a page to disappear. (Error is the default designation for browser support problems, so in some cases, code with an unknown effect is also marked as an error.)
• A warning indicates a piece of CSS code that isn’t supported in a particular browser, but that won’t cause any serious display problems.
• An informational message indicates code that isn’t supported in a particular browser, but that has no visible effect.

Browser compatibility checks do not alter your document in any way.

Run a browser compatibility check

Select File > Check Page > Browser Compatibility.

Select the element affected by a found issue

Double-click the issue in the Results panel.

Jump to the next or previous found issue in the code

Select Next Issue or Previous Issue from the Browser Compatibility Check menu in the Document toolbar.

Select browsers for Dreamweaver to check against

1. In the Results panel (Window > Results), select the Browser Compatibility Check tab.
2. Click the green arrow in the upper-left corner of the Results panel and select Settings.
3. Select the checkbox next to each browser you want to check against.
4. For each selected browser, select a minimum version to check against from the corresponding pop‑up menu.

For example, to see if CSS rendering bugs might appear in Internet Explorer 5.0 and later and Netscape Navigator 7.0 and later, select the checkboxes next to those browser names, and select 5.0 from the Internet Explorer pop‑up menu and 7.0 from the Netscape pop‑up menu.

Exclude an issue from the browser compatibility check

1. Run a browser compatibility check.
2. In the Results panel, Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the issue that you want to exclude from future checking.
3. Select Ignore Issue from the context menu.

Edit the Ignored Issues list

1. In the Results panel (Window > Results), select the Browser Compatibility Check tab.
2. Click the green arrow in the upper-left corner of the Results panel and select Edit Ignored Issues List.
3. In the Exceptions.xml file, find the issue that you want deleted from the Ignored Issues list and delete it.
4. Save and close the Exceptions.xml file.

Save a browser compatibility check report

1. Run a browser compatibility check.
2. Click the Save Report button on the left side of the Results panel.

Tip: Hover over buttons in the Results panel to see button tool tips.

Note: Reports are not saved automatically; if you want to keep a copy of a report, you must follow the above procedure to save it.

View a browser compatibility check report in a browser

1. Run a browser compatibility check.
2. Click the Browse Report button on the left side of the Results panel.

TIP: Hover over buttons in the Results panel to see button tool tips.

Open the Adobe CSS Advisor website

1. In the Results panel (Window > Results), select the Browser Compatibility Check tab.
2. Click the link text at the bottom right of the panel.

Note: You can also access the site by typing http://www.adobe.com/go/cssadvisor directly in a web browser.