Using Dean Edwards’ IE7 Script

• 3 Comments
• Tutorial
• 5.7.2007

At An Event Apart Boston, Eric Meyer discussed how IE7 is quickly being adopted. Since this is the case, we can treat IE6 as more of a secondary browser now.

We should all start to use the Dean Edwards IE7 script to bring IE6 up to par with standards compliant browsers.

The history behind the Dean Edwards script is that he wrote it when Microsoft had said that they were not going to produce any more versions of Internet Explorer. He wanted to provide a JavaScript solution to add more compliance to the browser.

Using the Script

First, download the Dean Edwards script. Next, extract the files to the root of your webserver in a folder called ie7. It needs to be in this folder, because some of the scripts have a dependency on the folder.

Finally, just include the script in the head of your document using conditional comments:

<!--[if lt IE 7]>
<script src="/ie7/ie7-standard-p.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<![endif]-->

On the configuration page, Dean shows you which scripts do what. By including the ie7-standard-p.js, you get the support of the following scripts:

• ie7-core.js
• ie7-html4.js
• ie7-layout.js
• ie7-css2-selectors.js
• ie7-graphics.js
• ie7-fixed.js

The only other script that I have included as well is the ie7-css3-selectors.js to include support for CSS3 selectors. Think of all those wonderful attribute selectors you can start to use in your project. It makes me all warm and tingly inside to think about where CSS can go when the browsers are up to the task.

Enjoy!

This really should be one of the first steps you take in a project. By doing this simple task, you will save yourself from a lot of IE6 headaches.

Sure, this only works for IE6 users who have JavaScript enabled. But honestly, is there anyone who is using IE6 who actually turns off JavaScript? If they do turn off JavaScript, it may just break some presentation layer things, but the site should still be perfectly usable.

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