Taming The IE6 Beast

“Internet Explorer 6.0″. The freelance web designer, and especially one who is self-taught, will shudder when hearing the name of this infamous browser.

BUT, as much as we all hate it, and struggle with it when we are new, if you can learn to design websites that work EVEN in IE6, then you will have become a much better designer.

Good web designers don’t care what their clients are going to use to look at their website, it’s just going to work.

Here are a few things I’ve learned in my struggle to tame the IE6 beast … Keep in mind, these are things I’ve learned through trial and error. And no rocket science here, just some simple rules to follow.

First, I always use pixels in sizing, never ‘em’s. Maybe this is something you never did, but I used to use tons of ‘em’s in my themes for spacing elements, with margins and padding. But somehow, ‘em’s aren’t correctly treated in older versions of IE. So I started using nothing but pixels for spacing, and got better results.

Second, I rely more on padding than on margins. Older IE versions tend to treat margins differently than other major browsers. So if there was an element that I could use either padding or margins, with the same effect, I would use the padding rather than the margin.

Third, wherever possible, I turn my .png files into .jpg files. I like to use transparency as much as anyone. But all too often I would be showing a cool new theme or website to a friend, on their computer, and the .png files would get a grey or pink background that totally messed up the look I was going for. So, if at all possible, I use .jpg files. Also, I don’t use transparent .css borders or font. IE6 doesn’t know what transparent means with anything at all!

Fourth, I don’t get crazy with creating graphical submit buttons or fields. IE has standard ones that they overlay onto the ones you create. So better to keep your submit buttons simple, either the default or some simple .css.

And my last tip is to test, test, test. Especially when trying a new technique and spending hours making it look perfect … in your favorite browser. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting it perfect and then finding out that in other major browsers (IE6 is not that major anymore but you get the point) it completely falls apart. Better to stick with simpler techniques that you can get to look good in all browsers.

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About the Author

Tim Norton started designing websites in his free time in 2005 and it soon became a major source of income for his family. He taught himself coding, graphics, and whatever else relates to designing great websites. He is the creator of the MotherTheme WordPress theme.