Monday, December 17, 2007

Websites for Photographers - Update

Just when you think you're on top of your game, showing other photographers how you make your own website, this happens:

Website as seen by Internet Explorer

I guess things like this are good to keep you on you toes. This is what the homepage of my website looked like on Internet Explorer 6 (PC) this morning just after I made my previous blog post Website Basics for Photographers. This is not pretty... This is an example of what happens when you don't write your Meta tags properly in an HTML document. Lots of CSS code, and an ugly page. I just happened to be around a PC today and thought I'd check out my recently updated pages in Internet Explorer 6 on a PC. If there is anything wrong with my code, IE will show it, and show it it did. I almost had a heart attack on the spot!

As it turns out, I had some Meta tags without the proper closing tags, and IE didn't like it. I had to spend most of the day knowing visitors, and potential clients, were looking at my site like this, as I couldn't get back to the office to fix it. I'm quite sure I have it fixed now, please let me know if you see anything strange.

On a related note, I found a great online tool for emulating web browsers called Browsercam. I searched it out after fixing my HTML code in the home page of my site today, as I wanted to make sure I had fixed it properly. Browsercam is able to emulate almost every web browser on any platform, and show you the results immediately. This saves webmasters from having to own multiple computers running many different web browsers. They have a 24hr free trial, and plans range from $20 for one day, to $60 per month, and an annual fee will set you back $400. Not cheap, and certainly not in my budget, but a great tool, and if you do enough work on your website, it may be worth it. It would have saved me from a near cardiac arrest...

Below are some screenshots showing the Browsercam interface:

Browsercam Interface
This is the Browsercam page where you can pick what OS/Browser choices you'd like it to emulate.

Browsercam Interface
This is what Browsercam spits out as the results. You can click on each thumbnail image to see a full screen preview of each OS/Browser combo.

My Website in IE6 PC
This is what the homepage of my site looks like on IE 6 on a Windows XP machine now, all fixed! Keep in mind, I'm on a Mac running Apple's Safari web browser. Very cool!


Cheers, Josh



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