Browsers

Internet Explorer 7 was my browser of choice. I have always preferred Internet Explorer to other browsers because it reads HTML correctly. The others don't. The code required to get something working on Firefox and Internet Explorer is about twice as verbose as the code required to get the same page showing correctly on IE. Even then Firefox will probably show it how it feels best. As a web designer I probably notice it more than most people.

That said, Firefox (and Opera, Netscape etc) have been the driving force behind why Internet Explorer 7 is as good as it is now - particularly the tabbed browsing.

I now use Firefox.

Because Vista has sodded Internet Explorer up.

Two little things have got to me to switch to Firefox; tiny little things. The first is the Developer Tool Bar in Internet Explorer. This is an extremely useful tool bar for developers. Really? It allows you to do really handy things like resize the browser to emulate smaller screens, pick up colours with a dropper, measure distances in pixels and view cell and table configuration. Microsoft claims it works with Vista. My computer says otherwise. It installs without a hitch and doesn't do anything. You can download a couple of tools that do the same for Firefox which do work with Vista.

I have been uploading information to a database through a web form. Much of the data is similar so the best way to do this is to submit the entry and then click back to repeat - can't do it. The paranoid operating system wipes out the entries in the form fields to protect me from my wreckless use of the internet.

If there is anybody reading who knows how to enable me to click back to a web page without erasing its contents please let me know. There has to be a setting for it somewhere. Or perhaps Mr Gates is so concerned for our welfare he has completely disabled this facility. I can still use Firefox.

Alternatively if anybody knows a way of getting the Firefox bookmarks to work as effectively as the Internet Explorer 7 favourites then please let me know. I can then kick IE into touch.