What Does Your Website Look Like In Different Browsers? Different Screen Sizes? Different Colour Settings?

Have you noticed that when you visit your own website using someone elses computer that it can look quite different?

And sometimes elements are completely missing or broken and don’t work how they do on your computer at work or home?

Using BrowserShots.org, you can simulate what your website will look like to all sorts of people with dozens of configurations, for free.

For example, I often wonder:

What does my website look like in old versions of Internet Explorer?
What about if Javascript is disabled?
Does my website look different in the latest version of Firefox?
What about Linux, Mac or Windows PC, do those operating systems display my website differently?
What does my website look like on different screen sizes?

Now I can find out using BrowserShots.org for free, and so can you.

Paste in your URL (either your homepage or any other webpage)
De-select all the checkboxes using the link “None” at the bottom
Select up to 5 or 6 browsers you recognise (eg I choose 2 or 3 versions of Firefox, 2 or 3 versions of Internet Explorer “MSIE”)
Leave the other options as as “Don’t Care”, for “Screen Width”, “Color Depth”, “Javascript”, “Java”, & “Flash”, unless you are specifically testing those options (because it will slow down the processing time)
Click the submit button
On the next webpage your results will be shown when they are ready. They can take an hour or two to appear, so save the page to your favourites/bookmarks, and return in an hour or so to check the results.

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Glenn June 6, 2011 at 10:22 pm: Strangely enough, for some odd reason BrowserShots.org doesn’t include Internet Explorer on its list, which almost renders it pointless really since both it and Mozilla Freezefox are the main browsers?
Sheldon Nesdale June 7, 2011 at 9:29 am: Hi Glenn, it does, but it is a little hard to spot. Look for MSIE 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 in the 4th column.
Glenn June 7, 2011 at 12:05 pm: Thanks Sheldon. I missed that. However, now they won’t allow me to sign in, despite resetting my password. Seems like too much effort, so i think I’ll try an alternative to browsershots
Sheldon Nesdale June 7, 2011 at 12:37 pm: I’m also a fan of expending zero effort. I’ve never even set up an account with BrowserShots. I can do what I need without doing so.

If you find a good one Glenn, please let us know.