Love the fact or hate it, we all have to use Internet Explorer in our design testing. Having to make sure our sites work on all 3 versions of Internet Exploiter Explorer is a clear indication that Microsoft should really drop support for at least one of them - IE6 comes to mind first.
It's the only time I will ever use said browsers, but luckily there are a few tools available to make the troubleshooting process a little easier.
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar
This only works for IE6 and IE6. While it's a far cry from Firefox's offerings, when used properly the Developer Toolbar can help you fix that elusive float problem that's been causing you to pull your hair out. There's no need to worry about getting it for IE8 though, as Microsoft saw fit to build a slightly better version into the browser. Something important to note is that if you're using Multiple IE, the toolbar will only work in one browser of the other (IE6 or IE7). That's why I do my IE6 testing in Virtualbox (more on that at the end of this article).
IETester
This is actually pretty good. IETester is a web browser that allows testing the rendering and javascript engines of IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5. It also does this without replacing your existing install of Internet Explorer. You can see each browser version in it's own tab which helps when comparing visual differences. Don't you just love that Office GUI?
Web Development Helper
The Web Development Helper is aimed more at Ajax and ASP.net developers but also helps designers. There's a dom inspector, screen capturing, networking tools, scripting features and dedicated ASP.net features.
Another way to test in older browsers
These tools are good but sometimes I'm interested in previewing my work in an older browser and an older operating system. This is where a virtual environment comes in handy. For this I use Virtualbox (freeware), which does the same thing as VirtualPC, except I found VirtualPC limiting in some regards.
Setting up a Virtualbox with WinXP or just about any other OS is too easy, and it means you have an identical environment to a freshly bought machine from yesteryear. I have a couple of Virtual environments - WinXP Pro with IE6, and Ubuntu with Firefox 2 and 3. You will of course need your original setup CD's to install any OS into a new Virtualbox.
Using a virtual environment isn't just for testing what happens on Internet Explorer. You would be forgiven for thinking for example, that Firefox renders the same regardless of the operating system, but as I've been shown on a couple of occasions in the past this isn't always the case, particularly with fonts.
If anyone knows of any other Internet Explorer development tools that are worth sharing here, feel free to comment.
Marvin The Martian
It's too bad that Microsoft doesn't make tools like Firebug. It would help to see changes inline and make development smoother. Either that or finally stand up to their promises and make IE standards compliant.
Monday 22nd June 2009 | 05:44 PM Reply Comment URL Profile Back to top