There does seem to be some problems with installing Explorer 8. I have heard on the grapevine instances of computer lock ups etc. Certainly wise to use the system restore before installing any new programs.
My first hand experience is with web sites. It seems that some sites won’t run properly in Explore 8. The reason for this would seem to be incorrectly written code in the site files. Some programs that produce web pages such as MS Publisher produce code that won’t validate via the W3S requirements. Pages coded by some people have been sloppy which results in incompatibility problems between programs. It would seem that Explorer 8 is more strict in its structure needs of the XHTML and therefore sites are producing errors. This effort to make XHTML consistent I would class this as a good thing and a trend that will continue because it will assure that web pages present correctly in all browsers. Unfortunately for those who have developed their sites with software such as Publisher, usually because of budget issues, will need to look at producing code that is valid ( http://validator.w3.org/ ). The options open to you; well you would try and validate the code, and in this way the coder can go through and fix the errors; Have the site re written using better development software such as Dreamweaver., Komposer (free), Amaya (free) or a development environment such as Joomla.
Bruce
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Once a commitment is made then great effort had to be put in to present a course that was introductory, practical, and understandable by a diverse range of adult students. The course that I wanted to present, at least, as a first web design course, was not a Rapid Development style but one that presented the underlying concepts of web design. A course that would allow people to alter, maintain, and exercise control over their site. Necessity then requires that the student be aware and understand to at least a basic degree HTML, Tables, CSS, DIVS, and how to publish their site.
The target group would be novice to moderately knowledgeable so it will be a difficult course to pull off and receive positive feedback from all the participants. The course would be quite difficult to those with low computer skills and confidence so the great challenge will be to hold all students to the end. It is expected that one or two will be lost from a small group during the course.
After diving into the subject of Web design by reading everything I could on the net, (which is considerable), accessing unit information from the Training Packages, and going through every training session I could find I built up a knowledge of the past, the present and future of web design. Once you get to the end result web page design is relatively simple. I make this statement though from the standpoint that I do have a very good grasp of IT generally so the underlying computer knowledge skills for me are common knowledge. After my research I targeted the short course of 6 three hour sessions at the key issues and concepts that persons should concentrate on. Modern web design revolves around CSS, HTML and a scripting language. Times past saw many sites designed with tables and often sites use a combination of CSS and tables. A basic page was developed in class, one with HTML and tables and a similar page using only HTML, CSS and DIVS.
I am quite pleased to say that only one person dropped out and I received excellent overall feedback which has led me now to design a complimentary course called ‘Build The Page’. This is a step by step practical course using CSS and DIVS. Further to this I am writing the ‘Rapid Page Development (RPD)’ course which should fill the last gap in this trio of web design courses. RPD will require users to learn about software that develops a page for you. For those who can self learn I would direct you to the W3Schools website. http://www.w3schools.com/
Bruce
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