33. Working around IE bugs

Sometimes the only way to make something work in both IE and more standards-compliant browsers is to write separate code for each. Use only as a last resort.

Conditional comments in HTML

safest, recommended by MS, but somewhat inconvenient
<!--[if IE]> HTML for IE <![endif]-->
<!--[if !IE]>--> HTML for non-IE <!--<![endif]-->
Use these with <link ...> to load alternate stylesheet files.

Selector hacks in CSS

take advantage of IE parsing bugs. Easier for small things, but more prone to unexpected side effects in the future.

IE 6 and below

* html ... /* the "star html hack" or "Tan hack" */

IE 7 only

*:first-child+html ...

IE 7 and non-IE

html>body ...

non-IE only

html>/**/body ...