IE6 Randomly Repeating Text

Ever had the issue whereby IE6 is randomly repeating the last few letters of text outside of its containing divide? Well I had that problem this evening... very infuriating!!

However, before you threaten to uninstall everything Microsoft then get in the car and drive to California to blow up the Microsoft headquarters - take a read of this article which explains the issue and gives a very simple workaround:

http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/dup-characters.html

In a nutshell the problem is caused by 2 consecutive divides that are floated in the same direction. The simple workaround is to give the last floated divide to appear in the markup a negative margin on the opposite side (i.e. if you have float:left, use margin-right: -20px; and vice-versa). Since the divides are floating to the other side than that of your margin this won't affect your design.

Simple eh?! Now, get out of the car and back to work!!

Tomorrow's CSS Today: 8 Techniques They Don't Want You To Know

Good article from Tim Wright on the SitePoint.com website about some handy CSS tricks and exactly what features of CSS3 can and can't be used already:

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/tomorrows-css-today

IE8 Beta - Installation Guide (with Virtual PC)

Microsoft have now released the first beta of Internet Explorer 8. If you (like me) are keen to try it out, below is a good guide on how to install it correctly using Virtual PC. The benefit of using a Virtual PC to install the new beta is that it won't overwrite any existing IE6 or IE7 versions you currently have on your default machine.

Please bear in mind that the virtual hard disk image (VHD) for IE8 that can be run via Virtual PC will time out in July 2008, at which point you'll need to download an updated image.

1. Download and install Virtual PC (30.4 MB).
2. Download and run the IE8 Virtual Hard Disk file here (IE8_VPC.EXE) -- this will auto-extract your VHD to a folder (along with a couple of text files).
3. Launch Virtual PC and click 'New...' to start the New Virtual Machine Wizard.
4. Select the second option, 'Use default settings to create a virtual machine' and click 'Next'.
5. Give your new virtual machine a name -- 'IE8' seems sensible enough -- and hit 'Next'.
6. Hit 'Finish'. This will automatically create a new directory called 'IE8' (or whatever else you named it) with a new configurations file inside it called 'IE8.vmc'.
7. A 'Settings' dialog box should now open automatically. 'Select Hard Disk 1', and switch the 'None' radio button to 'Virtual hard disk file:'
8. Browse and select the VHD file you extracted earlier, then press 'OK'.
9. Your Virtual PC console should now list a new Virtual Hard Disk. Select it and hit 'Start'.
10. Voila! After a few seconds you should be have a standalone window running XP and the IE8 beta.

Now all you need to do, is develope away and see what your creations are potentially going to look like in the new Microsoft browser!

Further information about IE8 can be found here.