Whenever you transfer web pages to an Internet site, an intranet server, a disk, or a memory card, you should immediately test every page thoroughly.
The following checklist will help make sure that everything on your pages behaves the way you expected:
1. | are on the Internet, consider testing through a 56Kbps modem connection to try them out under a minimal connection speed.
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2. | of Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer isn't a bad idea either because many people still use outdated versions and some pages will appear differently.
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3. | 1,600x1,200 resolution can't hurt.) I think we're finally to a point where you don't have to worry about testing at 640x480, because the number of people out there who are still using smaller low-res monitors is very small.
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4. | Turn off auto image loading in your web browser before you start testing so that you can see what each page looks like without the graphics. Check your alt tag messages and then turn image loading back on to load the graphics and review the page carefully again. Hour 8 explains how to place images on a page, along with how the alt tag works. |
5. | Use your browser's font size settings to look at each page in various font sizes, to ensure that your careful layout doesn't fall to pieces.
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6. | Start at the home page and systematically follow every link. (Use the Back button to return after each link, and then click the next link on the page.)
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7. | Wait for each page to completely finish loading, and scroll all the way down to make sure that all images appear where they should.
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8. | If you have a complex site, it may help to make a checklist of all the pages on your site to ensure that they all get tested.
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9. | Time how long it takes each page to load through a 56Kbps modem, preferably when connected through a different ISP than the one that runs the web server. Is the information on that page valuable enough to keep users from going elsewhere before the page finishes loading? Granted, broadband connections are getting much more common, but it's still a little too soon to ignore dial-up web users.
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If your pages pass all those tests, you can be pretty certain that they'll look great to every Internet surfer in the world.
