Testing in IE6 & 7 on a Mac

Hi, all,

I'm developing a site in DW CS3 on a PowerMac, running OSX.4, but cannot test
it in IE in any version later than IE5.

Is there a way I can test in IE6 & IE7 without asking someone with a PC to do
it for me?

I have had Virtual PC recommended to me as a possible work-around. Can anyone
tell me if this is the best option, and how well it works?
Otherwise, is there another way I can do this without having to spend £180 on
extra software?

Thanks in advance!

I have had Virtual PC recommended to me as a possible work-around. Can
anyone
tell me if this is the best option, and how well it works?

Virtual PC is virtualization software. It's slow.

You want emulation software. Parallels is the common product used these
days. You then have to find a copy of Windows and install it on top of
Parallels.

Otherwise, is there another way I can do this without having to spend
£180 on
extra software?

Browsercam.com and similiar sites will generate a screen shot of your site
in different browsers for you.

The catch is that it's a lot slower than actually having it on your own
machine, and the screen shots won't show any interaction problems that might
be there.

-Darrel

Yes I would have to agree with Alan here. You need virtualization software.
Parallels is a good choice and you might also want to consider Fusion from
VMWare.

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

Ok, the guy is on a PowerMac which are PowerPC processors only.
All of
the current virtualization software for Macs (including VMware and
Parallels)
require an Intel based Mac. They will not run on the old PowerMacs. On
his
current machine, virtualization is not an option unless he can find
a
really old copy of Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac (which Microsoft does not
make
anymore)

Well a) I'm an idiot for not catching that and b) I mixed up virtualization
and emulation. ;o)

So, yea, what Trane said.

I wouldn't bother with Virtual PC on a PowerPC machine. I'd go back to
Alan's suggestion and either a) find a cheap windows box for $400 or so or
b) upgrade to an Intel Mac (mini?) and put Parallels on that.

-Darrel

Wow. Thank to everyone who's replied to this.
I think between you all I now have complete picture of my options.

I guess I'm going to have to go over to Intel at some point, I had hoped I
could stave it off for a bit longer. I think in the meantime, I shall have to
see if I can 'borrow' and old Windows machine from a friend.

I'm going to need a bigger desk ...

One more question for anyone's who's still around: How widespread is use of
IE6 now? What's anyone's best guess how long it'll be before we can reasonably
stop tweaking sites to make them compatible with IE6?

One more question for anyone's who's still around: How widespread is use
of
IE6 now? What's anyone's best guess how long it'll be before we can
reasonably
stop tweaking sites to make them compatible with IE6?

IE6 is still deeply entrenched in more corporations.

Most MS organizations tend to NOT be early adapters of MS technology and
would likely still have a lot of 'one version back' users across the board.

-Darrel

There is a work-around though. On your Windows computer you can
download Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007

A MUCH easier/quicker workaround:

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

-Darrel