My web pages work in browser X but fail in browser Y. What to do next?

It doesn't take long for rookie Web developers to realize that the browser world is as unfair as the world we live in as browsers do not all comply with standards to the same degree. As a result, they are aghast when they find that their painstakingly-built web pages fail in some browsers that they test on towards the end. Being aware of HTML, CSS & JavaScript standards is a pre-condition to building cross-browser web pages but what if you skipped that step & now have to get a project out of the door?

Almost all of the new browsers come with developer tools to help locate & debug issues that could be preventing a web page from running as intended in that browser. A good first line of action would be review & resolve the errors & warnings displayed in the Console that is generally part of the browser's native developer tools.

In Firefox, there is an Error Console in the Tools menu.

IE 8 has a Script Console under the Script tab in Developer Tools which is accessible with keyboard shortcut F12.

Safari (on Windows) has the Show Error Console option in the Develop menu.

Opera's Error Console is a tab present in Developer Tools (also called Dragonfly) that is available from the Tools menu under Advanced option.

If this step doesn't help then review these links for tips on addressing specific issues -

• Stack Overflow: What are the typical reasons Javascript developed on Firefox fails on IE?
• Migrate apps from Internet Explorer to Mozilla

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