Hi everyone,

So I just started this new site for some friends and have run into a problem. They are using FireFox and the site is not loading the way it was supposed to. I went in and changed the code so it works with FireFox, but I had to enter a lot of redundent code to make it work. For some reason FireFox was not reading my css file and implementing the styles. Now I was taught to code for IE and everything worked fine. How do I make it so that other browsers are able to see and read my css files so that the site works in all browsers? Any help would be greatful.

Fenwolf

A good way to start would be to validate your code:

http://www.w3.org/

You should probably post your source or cite specific problems in order for us to help you.

I don't know who taught you to code for IE, but they deserve a swift kick in the pants. Code for the standards compliant browsers first, then, if necessary, make adjustments for IE. Even the Microsoft team has recognized the IE browser's deficiencies, which is why they have been pushing toward standards compliance with the upcoming IE8 release.

So here is the new site I am working on for some friends. If you check out the contact page you will see the problem in FireFox. It looks fine in IE, but is not working in FF.

http://www.medievalmagic.ca/HPPM/index.html

Is the problem you are refering to your text alignment?

If you add an align="center" attribute to the table with the id cont it seems to fix it.

Also for future reference these kinds of problems belong in the html and css forums

Sorry about that. Wasn't sure if this problem was html/css. I do have a question though. What is better to use right now for coding. External or Internal css to deal with cross browser problems? And is it true that IE and FF are changing their systems to better handel these kinds of problems?

Getting things to work cross browser has little to do with whether or not your css is inline or located in external files. You should use external style sheets for other reasons, mostly that it takes advantage of browser caching meaning once downloaded your pages will load faster since the css won't need to be downloaded again.

Browsers are always working on new versions. Usually a new browser will fix some problems and create others. The issue here is how compliant the browsers are with the standards and for the most part they're all pretty good, though IE still lags behind a little. Even IE is compliant with many standards.

The best way to develop a site is what Abel suggested above. Code to the standards first and then tweak your code where browsers seem to be displaying things wrong. Most of us here will develop in Firefox and periodically test how our pages look in IE and other browsers.

A lot of cross browser issues come down to knowing how your code will render in different browsers. That takes some experience working with them, but if you code to the standards you're most of the way there.