IE8

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

I put together a simple website some time back for a classic car show I'm involved with here in the UK, using MS Publisher 2003.
www.darlingbudsclassiccarshow.co.uk
It displays OK in Firefox, and more-or-less OK (apart from a few minor position differences) in IE7 and Opera. HOWEVER, I thought I'd better give IE8 a whirl. Installed it and it absolutely slaughters the site. Nothing displays properly. Navigation text is missing, only the buttons are there. Lines and boxes are gone. Stuff completely missing. Looks terrible. I dread to think what folk will think if they "upgrade" to IE8 and go to our site. Any suggestions, folks?

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

The first thing that comes to mind (& probably the easiest for you) is to post on your site that it is better rendered in FF.

As you have discovered (& stated) IE is a POS in all flavors. I read that even before it was in the consumer's hands that it had MAJOR defects. Why M$ insist on releasing any such thing that is only "half baked" is beyond me & why people knowingly keep accepting this is also a mystery.

So, as far as the site being rendered with IE8 looking like ****, I can sympathize with YOU but don't feel the least bit sorry for anyone using a know piece of crap to try to view sites & then bitch about it as if the site is at fault.

I just hope you don't have to resort to making it a M$ (IE rendering only) site to get it to even half *** work. As this will only prove to screw up ALL the OTHER browsers. - My personal opinion, & I'm sticking to it!! (until one of my instructors proves me wrong)

BudDurland · Joined: Dec 05, 2002 Posts: 522

I have a recommendation, but you probably won't like it.

Don't use Publisher ( or Word, for that matter) to create a web site; they really aren't the right tool for the job. To stay with the Microsoft Family, use Front Page.

There are also many free or low-cost alternatives; PageBreeze, Trellian Webpage and Serif Page Plus come immediately to mind.

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

Thanks. That was damn quick! A very...........er.......... spirited (the best description I can think of!) reply. I usually stick to FF myself but there are obviously very many un-enlightened folk out there who will "upgrade". I realise that perhaps Publisher wasn't the best thing to use in the first place but we wanted something put together quickly, as it's a WYSIWYG program and the templates were quite attractive and I`ve kept adding to it over the years, so it would still be a bit of a trial to re-vamp it. ANYWAY, as it's been fine for the last few years, I don't know why IE8 breaks it, so I don't see why I should have to re-jig it. I`ve just found out that there is a "compatibility" button to the right of the address bar, which shows a "broken" page icon if there is supposed to be a problem. Needless to say, it didn't work for my site! The worst thing is the lack of text next to the navigation buttons. Makes it pretty useless.
Quote:
Compatibility View

Many sites were built for IE7 and may not run properly with IE8, so IE8 has a Compatibility View that's designed to essentially trick a site into believing that you're running IE7.

When you visit a Web site built for IE7 that may not display properly in Internet Explorer 8, the browser is set to automatically switch to Compatibility View. You'll know when it happens -- a balloon tip appears briefly on the tab, telling you that the browser is displaying in Compatibility View.

In addition, an icon of a broken page lights up on the right-hand side of the address bar. That icon appears there, grayed out, when you are on a page that might be suitable for Compatibility View; to use the view, click the icon. Click again to get out of Compatibility View.

IE8 remembers that it needs to use Compatibility View on pages for which you've used that view before, so you won't have to click the icon each time you visit. In addition, you can opt out of the Compatibility View list if you want.
____________________________________________________________

This does sound like a bit of a cop-out to me!

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

Just found another article:
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/02/19/2400-major-sites-that-ie-8-ca...render-

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

"compatibility view"?

Sounds like M$ KNOWS there browser won't "cut the mustard" right from the start, that in & of itself ought to tell somebody, something... !!!

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

Yup, I thought that sounded a little odd too! As an aside , I`ve just added a rider to the site, squeezed in top left of the first page, advising use of an alternative browser. (Yes, the message itself DOES display in IE8 - I`ve checked!)

micker377 · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 1059

I just brought it up in both FF, and IE8. (19" wide screen monitor). Except for the text missing from the upper left panel (icons look OK), the site looks better in I.E. than it does in FF! Both in regular mode, and compatibility mode.
Win XP SP-3. Maybe it is rendered differently with Vista!

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

Vista & IE8? - double whammy - want to try for 3? Laughing

BTW: I run Fedora 9 (linux) with FF3 & the ONLY thing I saw was that the picture on the "MORE" page, next to the "SHOW CHAIRMAN", covers over the line that reads: "Kent a..." (that is where it covers) Other than that, all is OK. (didn't even have to kill "no script & such" to view either. A plus in MY book.

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

Yup - always had trouble positioning that pic, for some reason, as its position displays slightly differently in IE7 and FF, but text isn't obscured by it in either browser on my XP machine. It's a compromise position but looks best in FF.
Incidentally, although many folk have put down MS Publisher, it does have an "Easy Web Site Builder", so I had no reason to suppose it wouldn't be OK to use as a WYSIWYG program.
Looks like a re-vamp is on the cards............. Bother. (or words to that effect!) Sad

Liz46 · Joined: Mar 24, 2009 Posts: 2

Hello,

You're not alone in trying to deal with IE 8 compatibility in Publisher Web sites. I designed and maintain a Web site for a small non-profit, and used Publisher 2007. For awhile, I was quite worried myself.

However, you may not have to use new software to re-create your site.

I've found terrific specific advice on IE 8 work-arounds at the MS Community discussion boards at Microsoft Office/Publisher Web Design:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?query=IE8...mpatibi

If that link doesn't work, then go to www.microsoft.com/office/community and look for Publisher, then Web Design. Search for "IE 8 Compatibility" (without the quotes), and read the discussions there. (You may need to create a login/password first if you haven't joined the MS Communities before.)

The IE 8 problems and solutions revolve mainly around un-grouping objects so they're not rendered as an image. This is also recommended for other browser viewing compatibility, such as in FireFox and Safari. Webmasters should be doing this anyway, since many different browsers are used to view the Internet.

We Publisher users remain hopeful that MS will eventually issue a specific IE 8 compatibility patch for Publisher users. (The compatibility button installed in IE 8 does not work with Publisher-produced sites. And neither does the general coding install that MS supplies to site producers to "fix" compatibility with IE 8.)

Publisher, as you know, creates its own special coding. That's why your server needs to have FrontPage extensions installed for the Publisher site to work at all.

However the work-arounds discussed in this MS forum seem to work quite well on my site and in others, without the need to completely start again from scratch with other software.

You may want to use other software to begin again anyway, but take a look at the advice at MS Publisher Community first. You may save yourself a good deal of time and trouble.

Publisher is admitedly not the ideal Web design software, but you'd be surprised how well it works, even offering interactive features such as forms, once you know the tricks of the trade, so to speak. And many, like myself, like using Publisher since it's easy and familiar, and was used to create the Web site originally.

Give it a try, and good luck!

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

Thanks for that Liz46. A work-around or two there to try. I'll post the results when I can get in to my site. FTP access seems to be down at the moment, as sometimes happens!

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

A-ha! The work-around that seems to work for me:
"In the meantime I have found two workarounds. First of all if you are using
a non wizard built navbar it will work, whether it is a textual or an image
based menu. Secondly if you do want to use the Publisher wizard built navbar
you can also 'fix' it. I don't like the 'fix' but it does work. If you
select the navbar go to Arrange > and ungroup, you can ungroup the navbar
from the wizard. Now the navbar will render in IE8, and is functional. You
must do this with the side navbars, bottom and top if you are using them,
and you must do it on every page of your publication. What I don't like
about the fix is that with the navbar ungrouped from the navbar wizard, if
you want to add a page, the navbar will not be automatically updated as it
has been disconnected from the navbar wizard. You will have to rebuild the
navbar under those circumstances. This won't be a big issue for those who
have already finished their sites and won't be adding a page, but it will be
a pain for those who are building their sites and previewing and testing
them in IE8."
I haven't done all the pages yet (it's getting late here in the UK!) but this work-around also seems to apply to the missing graphics - in my case the green borders that had vanished in IE8. No ill-effects viewing in FF it would seem, either.
Many thanks to Liz46 for pointing me in that direction.

Liz46 · Joined: Mar 24, 2009 Posts: 2

Hi, davolente,

Glad you were able to find some help at the MS Publisher Forums, and that it's actually working. I went through such agony for awhile finding these work-arounds that it's nice to pay it forward, so to speak.

By the way, I noticed you live in Kent. Eons ago, I lived in Kent for a year or so, and taught in a comprehensive school in Sidcup. Still have good friends from there with whom I correspond regularly, and have many fond memories of those days.

Keep up the good work, and best of luck on your Web site.

Liz

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

Thanks again and ("slightly" off-topic), if anyone in the UK cares to visit our show, I shall.be in the public address trailer, twiddling the knobs and playing snippets from my collection of nostalgic sound clips. The more bodies that visit, the more money there is to go in the charity pot!

ivan_bell · Joined: Aug 24, 2004 Posts: 4

Hi
I have looked at your site in firefox and it LOOKS good.
However before you use work rounds or reconfigure it, try Validating it.
It has 965 errors in HTML
see HTML Validation
and 64 css errors
see CSS Errors
Once you have sorted these errors out you will find it displays properly in IE8 and your google ranking will improve
Cheers
Ivan
Old Glossop
.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Central FL, USA

Interesting thread!

But having two web sites of my own and having made just about every mistake possible with them, I finally took my Guru's advise and installed MS Front Page.

It's the only MS product that's specifically written to create readable and workable web sites.

I tried to use WORD to edit my site, one sad day, and Word made an absolute mess of it.
I even did some editing in Notepad but you really have to know HTML code to do that. That method works, but is very slow and clunky and mistakes are VERY easy to make.

As for I.E. ...... haven't used it in years!
I.E. 7 loaded on my XP PC in an auto-update and really screwed up my O.E.6.
I had to UN-Install I.E. 7

I'm testing Windows 7, build 7048 and I'm sure it came with I.E.8 (or some such) and like with all other versions of Windows, I don't use it.
I use only Mozilla Firefox, now up to ver. 3.0.8, which works just fine on Win-7, 64bit.

So in conclusion:
MS Front Page gets my vote and full support as my one and only Web Page editor. Works for me!

The Doctor Cool

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2238 Location: Central FL, USA

I'm baaaaaaack!

But this time I'm in Windows 7 and I've just checked out that Classic car show site in I.E. and YES, it's I.E.8.

After looking at the site in Windows XP-pro with both I.E.6 and Firefox 3.0.8 and seeing NO differences, I rebooted into Win-7 and viewed the site with I.E.8 and I see no differences. Go Figure!

Apparently, the car show site CAN be viewed in I.E.8, but it may require a more advanced and up to date OS.

Just a thought Wink

The Doctor Cool

PS: Since Windows 7 is looming on the horizon, it may be well for Site managers to see if their sites actually will work well with I.E.8 and Windows 7.

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

It should, hopefully display OK in IE8 now, as I have gone through each page and used the work-around that came up via Liz46's post, for which I'm most grateful. The Doc has probably looked at it after the modfication. Cheers, Doc for comment, anyway.
_______________________________________________________________
"Secondly if you do want to use the Publisher wizard built navbar
you can also 'fix' it. I don't like the 'fix' but it does work. If you
select the navbar go to Arrange > and ungroup, you can ungroup the navbar
from the wizard. Now the navbar will render in IE8, and is functional."
______________________________________________________________
As I mentioned, that seems to also apply to the missing borders, too. They came back into view with the same technique. Not sure what the "ungroup" function actually does, apart from disconnect from the wizard but the site looks much as it should do in IE8, apart from the minor positional differences. As a matter of interest, a friend running LInux has sent me some screenshots and he's experiencing overlapping text and has to juggle the size around. Doh!

davolente · Joined: Oct 04, 2003 Posts: 361 Location: Kent, UK

Very rude of me. Forgot to acknowledge ivan_bell's input re. HTML validation. Thank you. Unfortunately, what I know about HTML could be written on the back of a postage stamp, hence the use of Publisher as an easy-peasy way of conjuring up a website. How would I go about eliminating the errors, bearing in mind it was produced in a WYSIWYG program? I may have imagined this but I feel I may have seen a program that actually does an automatic clean-up of this nature. Right or wrong? Smile