Web Design with HTML and CSS

Tools to identify browser problems

Lesson 9, Browser Compatibility 203

Microsoft SuperPreview
SuperPreview is a standalone software application connected to Expression Web, Microsoft’s
web editor. SuperPreview works much the same way as BrowserLab, but it can preview
your web pages locally. SuperPreview can defi ne diff erent browsers for comparison. There
are signifi cant benefi ts if you want to test your pages for problems with Internet Explorer 6,
since SuperPreview has the code for the IE6 browser built into the program. SuperPreview is
a Windows application that only uses the browsers installed on a local system, but it also has a
network feature similar to BrowserLab to let you view your page using Safari on OS X.

SuperPreview also features measuring tools and diff erent modes that highlight suspected
elements on the page that are likely to be the source of a problem. SuperPreview will not
solve the layout issues, but it helps you to easily identify them.

SuperPreview with a split view of Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP (left) and Safari 3.0 on OS X (right).

Note that the full version of SuperPreview is not a free product, but Microsoft provides

Microsoft Expression Web SuperPreview for Windows Internet Explorer for free. This is a stripped-

down version of SuperPreview that you can use to test your pages with a version of Internet

Explorer 6 (only IE6; there is no comparison feature).