Internet Explorer is a special case to web design testing because of three things. First, some versions have unique bugs; second, it is a very complex task to have two versions of the browser run side by side on the same Windows machine; and third, you must test everything in it because it is the dominant browser out there. The task just got easier with IE Tester.

The Web Developer add-on now supports the latest version of the Mozilla Firefox browser, according to an announcement on author Chris Pederick's website. Firefox 3, currently in beta, is expected to ship in a couple of months, and the Web Developer add-on has become an essential and irreplaceable tool to many web designers.

It is common knowledge that some HTML elements display differently across browsers, even when no extra styling is applied to them. Thus, sometimes it is justified to start designing on a level playing field by resetting margins, padding, heading sizes, etc. to some kind of default values. How would you go about that task?

Happy birthday, HTML WYSIWYG editors! On February 26th, 1991, Tim Berners-Lee presented to the world Nexus, the very first browser and WYSIWYG editor.

The great webzine Smashing Magazine has a record of publishing exquisite articles on web related matters. Their latest piece, 10 Principles Of Effective Web Design, is an inspirational must-read for everyone who makes websites.

Among justsayhi.com's collection of funny widgets, right next to the "Can you survive a zombie apocalypse" quiz, there are two quizzes for web designers. They are called "How many HTML elements can you name in 5 minutes" and "Home many CSS properties can you name in 7 minutes." The premise is simple: once you open the page the clock starts ticking and you need to write HTML tags or CSS properties in a text box. After the time is up, you get a summary of what you got right and what you missed.

If, for whatever reason, you wish to wrap text in a novelty way, the CSS Text Wrapper is just the free online tool for you. It allows you to wrap text in a form that you can draw, on the web site, with a simple control point system. The application even has the option automatically to trace an uploaded image and then place the text in the resulting form.

Good news everyone! Microsoft has decided to make upgrading to Internet Explorer 7 mandatory by bundling the newer browser into a mid-February autoupdate. Now, you may say this is not "mandatory" in the true sense of the word, and you may be right, but this step on behalf of everyone's favorite megacompany is sure to bring IE6 closer to a single-digit market share percentage. Who knows, maybe one day soon you won't be required to test your HTML and CSS code against IE6?

The first beta version of the second most popular browser's third iteration is freely available for download from Mozilla. While this is not a nightly build, the software is not recommended for casual users until a more mature version is available. Which is to say that the only reason for you to want to take Firefox 3 for a test drive is pure curiosity.

According to this schematic, beautiful HTML is well ordered, with properly declared doctype, using semantically clean menus, etc. The image explains how you would go about creating a structured, validating HTML code.