I'm fairly computer literate, but I'm not an "expert". I'll avoid using too much technical terminology here, since I'm writing this page for the "average" computer user.

I've been scripting this site by hand, using "Windows Internet Explorer", which displays these pages the way I meant them to be seen.
But different browsers can display the scripting of these pages in quite different ways, as I found out when I downloaded and installed the "FireFox" browser.
I wasn't very happy about how my pages looked in a different browser.
No, not very pleased at all!
So now, on my "to do" list is to ensure that the pages of this website also display well using other commonly-used browsers, rather than just my "Internet Explorer".

I've installed "Mozilla Firefox" and "Apple Safari (for Windows)" and "Opera" and have started to check each page, modifying the scripting so they'll display properly in all 4 browsers. These 4 browser types are used for most online user agent activity worldwide, which is why I want to optimize my pages for them.

If I were a perfectionist, I'd also check my scripting by getting & using the "Google Chrome" browser and "Netscape", to cover about 99% of all worldwide browser class viewing type activity.
These numbers are according to the reported current statistics.

* Update, February 2010: Since writing this, the "Google Chrome" browser has moved up to 3rd place, after Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox. See the statistics at the linked page for the current browser popularity of the top 20 browsers. There are links on that same page showing month-by-month recent trends in browsers, as well as to screen resolutions and other interesting parameters.

It'll take me a while to go through the scripting of each page, fixing and optimizing them for each browser and for all of them together. I regard it as a learning experience. I'm now learning how to script properly rather than putting together something through trial and error that just turns out looking OK in one type of browser.

Although it took me an hour or so to figure it out, I now know exactly why my scripting wasn't being displayed the way I intended it to in all browser types. There were two types of errors, but both were the results of not scripting strictly according to the rules of HTML.

While I master scripting that's compatible with the 4 major browsers that I now have, please be tolerant of any imperfections in margin widths, floating menus, font display and other details. I expect it'll take me a few days to fix all of the pages here because I also have other activities, interests, projects and so on. Thanks for your patience!

I'd been wanting to try out the "Firefox" browser for quite a while because of its great reputation. But this time I felt forced to get it or risk being left with no browser at all.
At "Windows Update" I was prompted to get "Internet Explorer 8" ("IE8") to replace version 7 ("IE7") that I was using. So I did. That caused problems.

One problem I had with IE8 was not being able to open a link in a new tab. That option had even disappeared from the right-click menu on links. "Control" + "Left Click" no longer opened a link in a new tab either. I found that to be unacceptable.
To be fair, I should mention that I have friends who installed IE8 as an upgrade from IE7 who have had no problems at all with it. They have "Windows XP Home Edition", as I do.

So, of course, I wanted to get rid of IE8 and get my fully-functional IE7 back again. I researched the topic online. First I went back to a previous restore point. That resulted in having neither IE8 nor IE7. No browser at all!

Well, I reversed the restore point operation and got IE8 back again. I researched the topic further at "Microsoft Support", where there are links to many useful and informative articles.

That's when I downloaded "Firefox" to ensure that I wouldn't be left with no browser. I left the "Firefox" setup application in my "Downloads" folder even after installing "Firefox", in case I had to reinstall it, in case I still had to revert to a restore point before the installation of IE8.

I'm glad I have SP2 (Service Pack 2) and not SP3. If I had upgraded to SP3, especially after installing IE8, it would have been much harder to get IE7 back again. I'd previously tried to get SP3 from "Windows Update" but I have too many security programs installed to easily install SP3 after the required Restart (after downloading SP3).

"Microsoft Windows Update" can be found at either http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com or at http://update.microsoft.com

How to switch back to IE7 from IE8:
Solution: I finally found out how to get IE7 back by reading the Microsoft Help and Support page entitled "How do I uninstall or remove Internet Explorer 8?" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957700. Problem resolved! I have my fully-functioning IE7 back now and everything is working as it should.

But if I hadn't felt the need to get another browser, I wouldn't have known about my scripting errors. Now I'll be correcting those errors, page by page.

After fixing the scripting of these pages, I'm looking forward to trying out and customizing my Firefox browser. From what I've read, it has so many useful add-ons and other features that I'll probably start using it as my default browser.

I really should get a blog for writing stuff like this!