9 Replies Latest reply: Jan 25, 2014 1:17 AM by mikki RSS

    My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?

    AzzieScott Community Member

      I designed my site on my Macbook pro 17in. It looks fine on all mac computers with different screen resolutions. But when I view my site on a PC using Firefox,chrome etc... the site does not render correctly. My site is zoomed in to much and the navigation bar at the top of my page doesn't fill the width of the screen. There's a little portion of the nav bar that doesn't show up. When i download other browsers on my Mac like Firefox,Chrome etc.. my site still looks fine, but when I view them on a Windows computer the site doesn't render correctly. Like I mentioned earlier, it seems the resolution is not adjusting properly. On the windows PC if I hit the zoom out button a few times then the site corrects itself. But why doesn't the site automatically adjust to fit the screen properly? I wonder if it only happens on older operating systems. I checked it on a PC running windows 7 and it looked fine.

       

      Also I've noticed that when I view my site on a mobile device, ipad and iphone it doesn't render properly that great either. The same issue with the Nav bar not filling up the whole screen is present on my iPad and iPhone.

       

      Here is a screenshot of what happens to the top nav bar on Windows PC's. As you can see the bar doesn't extend to the full length of the screen.

      photo.JPG

       

      Here is a screenshot of what it supposed to look like. Like I mentioned it looks great on all Mac computers and PC's running windows 7. As you can see the top nav bar extends the full length of the screen.

      Screen shot 2.jpg

        • 1. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
          mikki Community Member

          Hello AzzieScott!

           

          That is the most common frustration for all web designers (those who code by hand) - not just Muse users. 

           

          Basically all web browsers use different "engines" that parse and render the code of a document.  Older browers will have even older versions of these "engines."

           

          Browsers such as IE 6 use engines that do not natively understand the newest version of HTML and CSS that is being generated by Muse - (HTML5 and CSS3).

           

          In regards to IE 6: I wouldn't worry too much about that older browser. Microsoft stopped "officially" supporting IE 6 back in January 2012 as less than 1 percent of North Americans were using it.

           

          While Muse will generate the standard codes, scripts etc. to try to force IE 6 and other outdated browsers to render the newer code correctly, not every element and/or property will work.  It fixes quite a bit of the most common issues, but that's about it.

           

          Coders have to do quite a bit of other customization and "fall-backs" as some browsers (new and old) just don't support every single element and/or property that the HTML5 and CSS3 specifications offer. Its a shame, but its the truth.

           

          While I love Muse it has its limitations, but use it only because its fast and easy. For a freelancer like me, any tool that saves me time is a tool I use - especially for clients who have limited budgets.

           

          Hope this helps answers your question.

           

          Good luck!

          • 2. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
            AzzieScott Community Member

            Hi mikki, yes that makes sense. It seems to work on newer browsers. But why doesn't it render properly on my iPad. ?  I would figure if it renders on my Mac it would render the same on my iPad. Yes I do understand I can create mobile versions of my site but I just have the desktop version for now.

            • 3. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
              mikki Community Member

              Hello again!

               

              No a Mac and an iPad are two different technologies and Operating Systems.

               

              The Safari browser on the iPad (and iPhone) is different than that of its counterpart for the desktop, mainly cause these devices are "touch-enabled" so they require a browser that supports those unique features. 

               

              I'm sure there are other techincal things that make them different, but that one thing is the most obvious.

               

              And, if you happen to have an iPad with Retina display, than there's another issue w/ your graphics looking really bad.  Retina features a higher pixel density to display stunning graphics.  So regular internet-quality graphics will look very poor on those types of devices, even if they look great on another.

               

              If you'd like to learn more about Retina displays, the blog tutorial on how to Design for Retina Displays in Adobe Muse is simple to understand and implement.

               

              Good luck!

              • 4. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
                AzzieScott Community Member

                Ok great thank you. I have another question. How do I get my muse site to generate a thumbnial when posting to facebook. I searched the web and they suggested to add a small line of code to the meta data section of the page properties. I did that and it still doesnt generate thumbnail. It was suggested to enter this code with the correct info : <meta property="og:image" content="URL to your thumbnail image" /> but still didnt work.

                • 6. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
                  AzzieScott Community Member

                  my website is http://thedreamdept.com 

                   

                  I fixed the facebook thumbnail issue, its working now. But the other issues with broswers are still happening. Mikki had some great explinations on thiis matter, but according to the muse compatabilty it should work on most systems

                  • 7. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
                    mikki Community Member

                    Your website kicks a$$! 

                     

                    Love it - the content is awesome - not just the design.

                     

                    Hopefully Zak and/or the others on the Muse team can figure-out what's causing those issues (they're all rather brilliant so I have a lot of faith in their abilities). 

                     

                    BTW:  It wouldn't surprise me if my suggestions are way off too.  Those are just the first things that I thought of cause those issues happened to me - and used to drive me crazy. 

                     

                    I do what I can to fix them (if its simple enough) and if not, I just ignore it - like IE 6 compatibility.

                    • 8. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
                      AzzieScott Community Member

                      Thank you Mikki, I really appreciate that. I agree with you. I probably shouldn't be too concerned with older out of date browsers and operating systems. I just want to make sure that might site looks good whoever visits it. In regards to your point about mobile safari and desktop safari, if I create tablet and phone versions of my site in muse wouldn't  the same issue occur as well? If I go to lets say apple.com, they don't have a mobile version of their website,only a desktop version, but when you visit their site on your computer, tablet or phone, it looks the same. Why doesn't muse accomplish the same thing?

                      • 9. Re: My Muse site looks good on Macs,and Windows 7 and 8 but nothing else. Why?
                        mikki Community Member

                        Hi AzzieScott.

                         

                        Sorry to be so late in my reply - I did not get a notification, I just happened to stumble on this.

                         

                        To answer your question: Apple is using some fancy code detection via media queries and javascript to detect how to display its web pages using “Adaptive Web Design” technique. 

                         

                        Whereas Muse sites that publish all 3 layouts will “forward” (re-route) the user agent via media queries. 

                         

                        A truly responsive, “flexible” website will “respond” to the size of the width of the browser’s window.  A good example is on the wordpress home page at wordpress.com (on your computer, just resize the width of your browser’s window, and it will adjust its layout accordingly).

                         

                        I personally like this “responsive” approach as it’s much easier to implement, AND, it also allows desktop users to resize their browser window without having to scroll in multiple directions.

                         

                        That is what Muse users want - not what we currently have.  In Muse, all desktop pages will publish directly to www.YourDomainName.com

                         

                        That same URL will be slightly different for the tablet: www.YourDomainName.com/tablet/index.html

                        And the mobile will be similar to the tablet but with “phone” as the subdirectory name in place of “tablet”:  www.YourDomainName.com/phone/index.html

                         

                         

                        While Muse’s “rerouting” technique is valid and certainly works, it is rather cumbersome and leaves a lot of technical glitches as well as confusion in its wake - especially to designers who are new to web design and are not familiar with the coding environment.

                         

                        I fully expect that TPTB will incorporate a flexible / responsive layout in the future - it would be awesome to have that now, but it’s a huge task for the development team on how to implement it AND make it easy to use for Muse designers. 

                         

                        But for now, at least we do have the ability to design for mobile devices.