Style compatability with older browsers

[smilingslightly]

Can anyone point me to some resources for making one's style play well with older browsers? Is there an open community that I've missed where it's appropriate to discuss style tips and tricks?

I'm using a Mixit-based theme that, I've been told, is unreadable in some older browsers. I'd like to continue using the style but I'd also like to make it easier for people to read what I post. (And here I want to express my thanks to the Dw folks for putting those style=mine links in the nav bar to facilitate just that.)

I'm a style n00b. Though I've played with CSS on websites, I'm still finding LJ-type style code seriously confusing.

Comments

[adalger]

The issue, largely, is that older browsers tend to not handle CSS properly, and most of the theme and layout work is done with CSS applied properly. I'm afraid this isn't very optimistic news; if you really want to play well with older browsers, you'll have to strip out a lot of CSS that is improperly handled by them, or resort to arcane trickery and browser-sniffing.

[smilingslightly]

older browsers tend to not handle CSS properly

Oh, yeah, I definitely get that. But it appears - and I don't have a copy of IE6 or FF1 to check this myself - that the style I'm using is degrading far less well than many others. If that is indeed the case, I'm hoping for a way to make my style play at least as nicely as the average theme.

Much to my surprise, it looks like unpaid accounts can still play around with customized styles so maybe I can just figure it out via trial and error. Still, if someone else has been there done that, it would sure help. ;)

[adalger]

Gotcha. I don't think there's really much you can do besides digging heavily into the system and ripping out all the stuff IE6 & FF1 choke on.

[tree]

there's dw_styles. i'm using mixit too, but i'm thinking i'll end up switching to transmogrified because i'm missing out on a lot of the newer dw nifty things.

[smilingslightly]

there's dw_styles
Yep, but that's an official community for Dw-implemented styles, I do believe. Membership is closed.

adalger just created style_system as an open style-discussion community, though, so we're good. :)

I'm curious: What sort of things can Transmogrified do that Mixit can't? ::is clueless::

[ninetydegrees]

What sort of things can Transmogrified do that Mixit can't?

Mixit was a pretty advanced layout on LJ so they have a lot in common but Transmogrified uses a new version of the Core layout which takes things a step further. You can select where you want to display the sidebar modules (header, sidebar, footer) and some modules have more options than Mixit. The calendar module has 2 modes: table and horizontal (like in Nebula). The tags modules has 3 modes instead of 2: list, cloud and multilevel. I think the CSS is more rational too.

Oh and entries have alternate colors on Transmogrified.

[smilingslightly]

Ah, nice. That does sound pretty cool. wistfuljane wrote a how-to on making Mixit use multi-level tags — easy as pie cake to implement — which was the missing feature I did know about.

[ninetydegrees]

Especially since it will available to all users, not just paid ones, as opposed to the method you linked to ( even though there's a bug making advanced available to all users for now).

[smilingslightly]

there's a bug making advanced available to all users

Ah, so that's why I still have access to advanced customization. I thought maybe Dw was playing it differently than LJ because I didn't see anything about customization in the user levels FAQ, except for the bit about mood themes.

[ninetydegrees]

Exactly and so I thought that too! But a volunteer told me it had been reported and corrected but that it wasn't live yet.

[tree]

oh, spiffy, thanks.

as for transmog - what ninetydegrees said. but, also, all the native dw styles have my favourite feature, which is taking you straight to the comments on a post when you click on the (#) Comments link. it might just be the most fabulous thing ever. :)

[smilingslightly]

taking you straight to the comments on a post when you click on the (#) Comments link

And that's something I didn't even notice. Pretty cool, though.