CSS Workarounds for IE

CSS support has finally evolved to a point where you can safely use it for "real work". Unfortunately, since Microsoft dropped support for Internet Explorer it means we're stuck with its current set of bugs for the rest of eternity. Even Microsoft's tech evangelist has given up on IE. Sounds pretty dire, right? Fortunately, Microsoft were thoughtful enough to build in ways to workaround these problems.

How? By using the Behavioural Extensions to CSS. They essentially provide a way to alter the way HTML is understood by the browser. That is, CSS lets you control the way things are rendered, behaviours let you control the way the browser works.

Before I get too carried away with the potential uses for such a technology, I'll point you to some people who've already done all the hard work. There's a number of projects working on the problem of using CSS Behaviours to retrofit standards compliance to IE, but these are the ones I consider to be the "cream of the crop":

• Dean Edwards' IE7 was the first project to come to my attention, and as far as I'm aware, it remains the most complete. It's very simple to setup, just download it from here and follow these instructions to use it.
• whatever:hover deals elegantly with IE's missing support for the :hover pseudo-element. It doesn't include the rest of the fixes that IE7 does though. It's a great solution if you just need the :hover

There's another page of relevance here, but it's in Hungarian. Dean Edwards is intending to work with the author of that site to get even better compatability in IE7. For now, IE7 looks like the best choice.

Resource Links:

• Dean Edwards' IE7
• Peter Nederlof's whatever:hover
• Behavioural Extensions to CSS