Tips for IE8

So after using IE8 for a while now, there are a few things that are useful for people to keep in mind. First, there are a lot of changes in IE8. I am really excited about some of them, such as WebSlices. They give you the ability to subscribe to just a part of a page, like an RSS feed, but just for a part of a page. There is a really good discussion about this here.

To give you an example, if you are looking at this blog with IE8, the list below is a WebSlice. I will update this with new articles around IE8 as time goes on.

IE8 articles

Along with the new features, there are some issues that some existing sites may have with IE8. If you are a consumer looking at a page that has an issue, you can click on the IE7 Emulation button and you should be able to see the site like you were browsing it in Internet Explorer 7. If it is your site and you want it to work in IE7 mode, one way you can enable this is to set a meta tag on your page. The meta tag looks like:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />

This will make your page work like it did in IE7.

I will try to post some more thoughts around IE8 and my experiences around it. I'd like to hear your thoughts if you are using it.

Published 02 April 08 11:12 by Tom

Filed under: Microsoft, IE8

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# DotNetKicks.com said on April 2, 2008 11:13 PM:

You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.com

# janmaru said on April 3, 2008 6:08 AM:

http://asp.net/ lookS quite weirD without IE7 Emulation... I'm just wandering

# Tom said on April 3, 2008 9:51 AM:

Yes, it hasn't been updated yet for IE8.

# Darwaish said on April 3, 2008 11:22 AM:

I have been using IE since 3.0 but please allow me to say that IE8 simply SUCKS...

It wont even render msn.com correctly. I mean, come on MS

# Tom said on April 3, 2008 11:57 AM:

There is quite a change with IE8 and we are in the process of working through those things to make them all function correctly. Hopefully those sites which don't work with IE8 will drastically reduce as we move forward.

# Bertrand Le Roy said on April 3, 2008 12:48 PM:

@Darwaish: may I respectfully remind you that this is a beta? If you see a problem, the responsible thing is to report it.

# Josh Coswell said on April 3, 2008 1:57 PM:

I will wait to see IE8 in full release version with all the features.

Josh Coswell

http://riverasp.net

# janmaru said on April 3, 2008 3:26 PM:

hi! IE 7.0 has been quite a challenge 4 no developer users. As far as I'm concerned people around just stick on IE6 ( and XP, believe me!!!) and I have to adapt my css to IE6 still as 4 years before...

IE 8.0 goes in the same direction... why to move all the menu on the right side when we were used to find everything (Office docet!) on the left??????

WebSlices are fine but Mozilla addOns win at the end...

the new 4 the new ain't good

ciao ;-)

# Tom said on April 3, 2008 3:34 PM:

There are some real value adds in IE8. I think the WebSlices are a great idea and will change the way we look at sites like Ebay or sites that offer stock information or sports scores.

I think any new product will always have some pains involved with moving to it. It is the price you pay to move forward, but in the end, you are better off with the changes once everyone catches up.

The links in the post have some great details on why IE8 acts the way it does.

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All my posts are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights. All the expressions expressed herein are entirely my own and not necessarily those of Microsoft. In addition, thoughts and opinions often change. Because a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point-in-time snapshot, you should not consider out of date posts to reflect current thoughts and opinions.