I am in desperate need of making my site IE6 compatible - i just created a new layout on my site and got a few complaints from some customers that don't know how to update a computer to the latest browser.
My test site is at thesignkings.com - it seems all most every page has some sort of display issue - the main issue would be header not displaying properly but then i also have some column issues not displaying right. if anyone could lend a hand i would greatly appreciate it. Ive been working on this for weeks now - losing hair by the minute

Is it messed up that bad??

Not really. The two big IE6 issues I see are the menu text right of the banner being skewed by IE6, which can be fixed with conditional comments, and some menu issues in IE6 and 7 on the menu below the banner. In 6 it doesn't show at all on hover, and in 7 the stacking order's off.

For 7, setting the position to relative and giving the menu a z-index of 999 or something like that will take care of the stacking order. As for it not displaying at all in 6, I'll have to take a closer look. LadynRed's our resident expert in whacking IE6 into compliance, hopefully she'll be on and can take a look as well.

If there are other specific things not working, do specifically state them.

tim

all your problem 'appears' to be is in the basic html design. I would double check within your css and then if you still have problems, post back. To be honest, I would only develop for Firefox, Opera, and if you really have to develop for IE, then work within the latest version of IE. Just my 2 cents.

Unfortunately you do still have to develop for ie6 if you want a high percentage of your customers to see your website how it is meant to be.

All I can say is good luck with it, designing for IE6 is not fun.

I'm heeeerrreeee

Ok, lets see if we can whip this into place!

1 - to get rid of the gap between the header and the main page section, you need to add padding-top: 1px to #col2-left-wrapper, this will close the margin-collapse that's happening (which is NOT a bug, btw).

2 - Part of your problem stems from the over-use of positioning. You really don't need the position:relative, z-index or the top and right positioning on your top nav. Give the UL a set width, float it right, then push it where you want it to be using margins. You're better off to 'go with the flow' - top down, left to right, than using all that positioning.

With floats, you also have to be sure you CLEAR the floats, see our stickies for how to best do that.

For your column issues, it looks like you may be running into IE's nasty double-float margin bug - if you float something, then give it a margin that goes in the same direction as the float, ie: float right with a right margin - IE6 will DOUBLE that margin. To fix that, you need to add display:inline to the properties for that floated element - and use conditional comments and a separate css file for ONLY the bug fixes in it.

First off - Thank you to everyone for the responses so far - I really appreciate everyone that takes time out of their busy lives to help others..

Now with that off my chest - I have to admit when it comes to website design I know zilch and am learning as I go.

LadynRed - I am looking at your information and I will now see what i can mess up - hopefully I wont have to ask for any more help but if i do just keep in mind i'm a novice...

Thanks again to everyone!

IE6 is too old but people are still using it. Dont know why, but building IE6 site is like a stepping stone. Also check your site on different resolutions also. Resolution changes the complete site looks and feel.

It's not always a matter of 'not being able' to update a browser - my company is one of those that is stuck in the dark ages of browser-dom using IE6 because they have a huge investment in legacy programs that ONLY work with IE6. The cost of upgrading all that software to work with newer versions is something they choke on. However, they may finally be seeing the light - I recently heard that they will be rolling out IE7 with new pc's... at least it's a step in the right direction! Until then.. we're stuck with IE6

Unfortunately, there is still a 25-30% usage of IE6 among business users, it would be foolish to ignore it completely yet.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

Unfortunately, there is still a 25-30% usage of IE6 among business users, it would be foolish to ignore it completely yet.

Yeah you are right. Most of readers still use IE6 so we cant simply ignore them.

I had a template, where the coder had designed the template such a way that it points to 2 seperate .css files. First .css files was build keeping IE7+ in mind and the second .css was developed keeping IE6 in mind ALONE. So in this way anyone from IE6 or IE6+ clicking your link would not face a corrupted css site.