The majority of my site is based on css and it works in all modern browsers, firefox, ie, opera and netscape but when I disabled the css I realised that it looks terrible.
Which browsers do not support css and do many people still have them and how would I go about making an alternative for people without css compatibility?
First, you need to identify your viewing demographic. What do they use? Most people would not need to worry about out dated browsers that much because most of the market is now using a CSS compliant browser of some sort. One thing that may present some formatting problems is IE5 and IE6 which often times require awkward CSS 'hacks' to get the desired effects; but never the less, it can be done (without effecting the view from compliant browsers). This can be done using just CSS or can be done with the assistance of JavaScript via browser detection and alternate CSS files.
According the W3C the browser usage as of Feb 2007 breaks down as:
IE7-16.4%
IE6-39.8%
IE5-2.5%
Firefox-31.2% (WOOT!)
Mozilla-1.4%
Safari-1.7%
Opera-1.5% (I think this will grow with Wii)
So, as you can see add the IE browsers with Firefox and you have 89.9% of the market covered - Couple this with the fact that Safari, Opera and Mozilla have pretty good CSS support and you can see that writing for the CSS capable is really writing for most everyone on the internet 
So, unless you are making the site for family who are using windows 95/98 machines you can use CSS until the cows come home. If you want to be sure of who is viewing and what they are viewing with you can install a site counter from sitemeter and it will let you know what browsers are viewing your site!
Some pertinent sites:
W3C Browser Info
CSS Compatibility
Sitemeter.com Thanks for that. You have given me boosted confidence in my site! Really great information there! thanks.
$10.
Glad that I could help. The donation was not necessary but tips are nice Thanks!
There will always be that possibility that a great aunt or friend with public library computer/internet access will have some issues but unlikely. Good rule of thumb is to test your pages in IE and firefox - if you have any problems in one, chances are someone else has also and have documented a work around or hack.
best of luck! | Quote: |
| The majority of my site is based on css and it works in all modern browsers, firefox, ie, opera and netscape but when I disabled the css I realised that it looks terrible. |
Maybe you should revise your code to see if it's clean and accessible. You should first focus on the content (html), then on the style (css). You should make search engines to easily "read" your site, and that's done without css (should be obvious).
And what eznet told is correct. You can forget the IE5, but you have to make your site compliant with IE6, 7, and Firefox. Opera and Safari have good css implementation, so that should not be a problem.As mariohs said, the main question is : is your website's content still available without CSS ?. If it's true, then there's no problem : old browsers will still have access to it. If it's not the case, you've got design and accessibility problems... | eznet wrote: |
| According the W3C the browser usage as of Feb 2007 breaks down as |
W3C has not stats about browsers usage... | Ranfaroth wrote: |
| W3C has not stats about browsers usage... |
I stand corrected 
, W3Schools - Semantics!no (or bad) CSS-support is no longer limited to old browser. People do not only surf on regular computers anymore. Mobile phones, TV-browsers, browsers for blind people etc is browsers that rely on your webpage to have a semantic structure. As others has pointed out; If your webpage looks bad with CSS disabled, it is not the browser that is the problem, but the HTML-code.
Naked day was April 5th.
"What's Naked day, and why did you miss it?" you lament.
Naked Day is a when you remove all CSS from your web site and show off your naked <body>. The first annual Naked day was in 2006 in order to promote web standards. The theory being that without CSS your web page should still be readable and understandable (some of the CSS hacks folks use do look awful without CSS to back them up).
So like folks have been telling you, if you don't like what you see without CSS on your site then maybe you just have to work at it a little harder at your HTML first then layout your styles. No big deal.
See you next Naked Day.
Maybe it's been said adequately already, but I'm going to second that motion!
I just can't advocate semantics strongly enough.
If you use the right markup for the right content, yur page should make sense een without your stylesheet(s).
Ie: use divs to add structure to your document. P for paragraph. Ul and Ol for lists, abbr or acronym for abrreviations, blockquote for long quotes, address for addresses... and so-one.
The simple step of marking up pages this way makes most sites miles more accessible!
True. A good rule of thumb is to make your page legible the old fashion way with 'basic' html and then mark it up with CSS for style. If you learn to crawl(html) before you learn to walk(css), the natural order of things, then you will likely have no problem with this.
