Dreamweaver and Netscape

Why is it that everytim ei make HTML files using Dreamweaver they are only good for IE browsers People that view my stuff with netscape get garbage.

Any ideas?

You should probably buy a book on HTML, so you better understand what is going on "behind the scenes". Dreamweaver and other visual editors do not always generate code that will work in every browser. You sometimes have to tweak the code yourself to make sure it looks good for everyone.

Ah ok i see what happen. My freind is using Netscape 3.01. Which is of course really old. So my next questions is there any way to make the site test the browser and if it does not meet the requirments it will take them to a screen telling them to update?

Sure, that could be done both clientside and serverside.
I've forgotten the function in JavaScript....and I can't remember the PHP function either right now lol...
But check google for them, shouldn't be hard to find.

what should i search for?

Search for "browser detection in javascript" or "browser detection in php".

I found a fairly easy script a few days ago which I used for my page (apparently, it doesn't look good in other browsers so I put up a notice page before entering).

http://phpbuilder.com/columns/tim20000821.php3

You can tweak the code if you want to I guess, I believe the author made them all fruitful functions so it's easy for you to use in if else statements.

design for the lowest common denominator. (although maybe not netscape 3!)

don't expect users to download a new browser just to look at your crappy site.

your site should degrade gracefully on older broswers. useable and as close to what you had in mind as possible.

download some older browsers and test your sites out.

Netscape 3 is just plain ridiculous though. I don't even worry about netscape 4 anymore... pfft. netscape 3... hahaha.

IMO though. Why sacrifice your design for the few who still hang onto old browsers? I mean Netscape 4.7 or less has very little support for the greatness of Css, what about IE 4? If they are still using windows 95 with the same default browser that came with the install, oh well, I would not design a page with them in mind. If your page looks absolutely hideous in IE 5.5, you might have a problem, but you gotta realise they have been able to upgrade their browsers for the last 3 1/2 years so if they havent, well let them run into more pages they can't browse. Even my mother in law has cable now with her windows 98 , pii 233. Takes about 5 minutes to install a new browser (or less.)