Checking Browser Support

In terms of the HTML document type, Dreamweaver 8 creates XHTML 1.0 Transitional files by default, as discussed in Chapter 3. These files are readable and valid for all commonly used modern Web browsers. So you could consider Dreamweaver's ability to check files for browser support to be somewhat vestigial. But you may find you need to work on older pages that haven't been retrofitted for current browsers. Dreamweaver allows you to check your pages for errors with targeted browsers. It does this by keeping a database of browser profiles, which details how different browsers render pages. You can check individual pages, or check your whole site. Errors appear in the Results panel.

To define browsers for checking:

1.	Open any file in your site.
2.	From the Browser Check pop-up menu at the top of the document window, choose Settings ( Figure 16.28 ). Figure 16.28. Use the Browser Check pop-up menu to make sure your pages will appear correctly in different browsers. The Target Browsers dialog appears ( Figure 16.29 ). Figure 16.29. Choose the target browsers for your validation check.
3.	To enable a particular browser, select the check box next to its name . Choose from the pop-up menu next to the name to select the minimum version of that browser you want to check against.
4.	Click OK to dismiss the Target Browsers dialog.

To check the current document for browser support:

1.	From the Browser Check pop-up menu at the top of the document window, choose Check Browser Support. If there are no errors found, a tooltip appears over the Browser Check pop-up menu stating "No browser check errors." Pop a cold one and relax.
2.	If errors are found, a tooltip appears over the Browser Check pop-up menu stating the number of errors found. Choose Window > Results to see the errors. The Results panel opens with the errors displayed ( Figure 16.30 ). Figure 16.30. Errors in your document appear in the Results panel, along with names of the browsers affected by the errors. There are three kinds of possible errors reported in the Results panel: errors , warnings , and informational messages . An error indicates a problem in the code that can cause serious visual problems with the page. A warning indicates that the page won't be displayed exactly correctly in the targeted browser, but the problem isn't serious. An informational message is used for code that isn't supported in a particular browser, but has no visual effect.
3.	Double-click on an error in the Results panel to change the document window to Split view, highlighting the error in the Code and Design views.
4.	Fix the error in Code view.

To run a browser check on the entire current site:

1.	In the Target Browser Check tab of the Results panel, click the Check Target Browsers pop-up menu ( Figure 16.31 ). Figure 16.31. Use the Check Target Browsers pop-up menu to run a browser check on your entire site.
2.	Choose Check Target Browsers for Entire Current Local Site. Dreamweaver performs the browser check and places results in the Results panel.
3.	Double-click on an error in the Results panel to change the document window to Split view, highlighting the error in the Code and Design views.
4.	Fix the error in Code view.