Sadly, despite the best attempts of website designers all over the world, Apple, Mozilla, and the combined forces of The Web Standards Project, Internet Explorer is still, unbelievably, the dominant web browser. It has always been this way and probably always will be. All the time Windows is the dominant operating system, and Internet Explorer is forced on it’s users, things are unlikely to change.
With most creative professionals using Apple hardware and preferring to maintain Microsoft free working environments a problem emerges. That of testing designs in different versions of Internet Explorer.
It’s possible to use online services that simulate Internet Explorer but this is time consuming and doesn’t always work accurately. Parallels, the Mac software that enables the Apple user to install Windows, is another option but that means running Internet Explorer from within Windows. And running Windows on a Mac is rather like buying a beautiful bespoke suit and rubbing dirt all over it when you wear it.
Enter IEs4OSX. A free program that allows Mac users to run IE 5, 6 and 7, all from the safety of the desktop without needing to install them, providing an easy way to test their designs in Bill’s browser without soiling their machines with the usual Microsoft detritus.
Hopefully this will make problems like the one outlined here a lot easier to fix.
I’m even more jealous of Mac users than I was before, now. Windows users can’t have that array of IE versions installed, even though IE and Windows go hand in hand more than IE and Macintosh.
By the way, I would advise you to not lose sleep over compatibility with IE5. Making your design look great in that browser is like making an oven that can withstand having an elephant dropped onto it: reassuring, but not very worthwhile.
Absolutely some of the most essential software for a Mac web coder. Totally awesome, has helped me out TREMENDOUSLY.