Until I moved my site to a WordPress format — where I need a “template” that allows me to lay out the site with the information as you see it — I didn’t care much about what type of browser I used.
I used Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and didn’t think much about doing so, even though I had downloaded and used Firefox as a browser and liked the idea of the Extensions that are offered with the program.
In trying to discover a template that looked right, I found that there was a wide — a mile wide — variation in how the template would show up in both Internet Explorer and in Firefox. I was surprised by the variation and found out why it occurs.
It’s converted me to a Firefox junkie and this post will address how I’ve set it up.
Firefox follows standards and, of course, Microsoft follows their own. It is one of the most irritating things about the company, one that is headquartered here in Seattle-land and I have a lot of respect for. Microsoft often creates standards for the industry, a good thing. But once standards are out there and accepted, the company doesn’t convert their work to the standards, causing increased work on programmers everywhere.
For example, the template that you see here has specific coding hacks in it so it renders properly in Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer version 7, now out, requires more hacks to fix templates.
But instead of worrying about all that, I’d just suggest that your surfing experience would be much better served by using Firefox.
There are three reasons:
- Firefox follows standards for coding Internet sites. That means perfect rendering of sites that follow the standards; virtually all.
- Firefox allows for “tabbed” browsing . Instead of opening another entire window for browsing, you can open a tab next to your existing one and just move between the tabs. Way cool and much better than Internet Explorer 7.
- Firefox has great add-in programs, allowing you to select your theme (Halloween - like? Outlook - like? No problem!) and some Extensions that significantly help your experience.
Here’s how mine is set up:
Firefox is downloaded for free from this URL. You can download and install the program and in and of itself have a better experience.
However, being the geek I am, I also downloaded some Extensions to really get the program right. Here’s my list:
- Adblock Plus: Blocks pop-up and internal ads. Way nice.
- Adblock Filterset.G Updater: This is a database that tracks the ads used by Adblock Plus to keep the relentless addition of pop-up ads at bay.
- Flashblock: Replaces Flash (multi-media program) with a button so you can click a button and choose to see them rather than force them on you.
- HashColouredTabs: This improves the ‘tabbed’ browsing by giving each tab a color-coded icon
- Tab X: This also improves the ‘tabbed’ browsing by giving you a close button on each tab rather than just one at the end that comes with Firefox.
- Sort Extensions and Themes: Sorts the lists of installed extensions and themes alphabetically.
You have access to all of these by clicking on “Tools” and then “Extensions” from the toolbar. At the bottom of the Extension dialog box is a place where you can get more extensions. Then search for the above extensions.
Once installed…boy, is this a nice surfing experience. I’d go for it!
Scot
[tags]browser, technology-for-writers, ten-keyboards[/tags]
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