Hi there, I visited a site before that lets you test your site in multiple browsers. Images of your site were then processed in a queue and uploaded. Trouble is I can't seem to remember what the site was called! Does anyone know of a similar service that's free? (I want to test my new layout).
Problem is you'll be waiting for your site to come up and then it times out... waaaay too slow. Better to download the browsers yourself (they're free) so you can do real testing. Browsershots only lets you look at the layout of the main page. There's another service called www.browsercam.com (i think that's the URL) but with them you pay to use their dummy machines (testing links, link hovers, javascript, objects and Flash etc via their machines). People usually buy time together in chunks. But I've got all the basic major browsers and it's just easier to do it that way. They're free! And you can do real actual testing of your site.
Yeah,but if you've got a mac, you're not going to buy a PC just to have a look at your page layout...vice versa if you've got a PC you're not going to buy a mac etc etc
I have Linux. I test IE on a Winblows machine at work (which if I didn't have, I would install VMWare and have a virtual 'Blows anyway) and there is Safari for 'Blows as well as Parallels for Mac (run 'blows programmes). Sorry but if you let your hardware limit your testing, then your site will not be optimised for the multitude of browsers out there and so maybe one should not be making websites (since they'll only be tested on one or two browsers... and let's not forget about screen readers and magnifyers). With VMWare you can also run the demo version of JAWS screen reader for 'blows which while is only one of many popular screen readers, it gives you a valuable testing tool. browsershots only shows you layout, and times out constantly. I've only ever gotten one site viewed on that website (hopefully upgrades to their servers will help). You should be testing various screen resolutions, links, scripts, etc. You need to see how your client's site works on mulitple user agents.
I test on all browsers on my PC, then post in forums for others (like those who have macs) to test my site out also and report anything that they find.
If your "serious" about being a web designer/ developer that is exactly what people do. All you need however is the most basic machine you can find and you can pick things up secondhand dirt cheap (or even for free). Alternatively there are forums and you just have to trust that the others have done rigorous testing (which can be difficult as they may not know how something is supposed to have worked). If you use a PC there are now browsers based on the same engine as safari so you could use one of them and hope that it is a close enough approximation to what mac users are seeing
Eh, I used to use Konqueror as my Safari subsitute as it's got kinda the same engine-- but the two are really different I've found. Safari is so much better than konqueror and the spacing is a bit different cause Safari uses the Mac version of font-fuzzing (I forget what it's called, it's different than what Linux and Windows use for font clarity).