Genii Weblog

Very cool tool for Internet Explorer (yes, stodgy old unsexy IE)

Tue 22 Nov 2005, 02:30 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
I know there are some who cringe at the idea of using Internet Explorer, and I do generally use Firefox myself, but I try to be open to ideas from any source, and not join the technologically religious arrayed either against or in favor of Microsoft.  After all, I used to view IBM with almost equal hatred.

In any case, Microsoft has released a very cool tool for Internet Explorer called the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar.  I read about it on Jim Anderton's With a T blog, and gave it a quick try, and I am instantly hooked.  This actually surpasses the plug-ins I have used so far for Firefox.  It allows quick and easy access to the DOM, to outlines, to HTML and CSS validation, and on and on.  If you develop for the web at all, this is an absolute must.   My favorite features so far as the Image menu (shown below) and the ability to resize to an exact size, which is also really handy for screen clips for demos.  Now I wish Lotus Notes had such a feature.

Inline JPEG image

C'mon, swallow your pride and see how Microsoft is helping to keep the browser wars alive.  And of course I hope the open source advocates match and surpass this with Firefox.  That is what competition is for, in my opinion.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


396.1. Jim Sanders
(11/22/2005 01:44 PM)

Cool! Looks pretty slick, especially for a beta product. Between this and Firefox with the Web Developer extension we're really starting to get somewhere in terms of browser based functionality for the masses.


396.2. Stan Rogers
(11/22/2005 02:27 PM)

Oh -- in Firefox (and any other Mozilla-based browser I've seen), the DOM Inspector is a selection you need to make at install time, so you need to select "Custom Installation" and make sure the developer option is selected. Admittedly, the documentation on the download site should make that clear -- I went through a number of versions wondering why MY copy of NS6, NS7, Firefox, whatever, was crippled. Everyone else had (and used) the DOM Inspector -- maybe it was illegal to inspect the DOM in Canada? No -- just a switch I didn't know about.


396.3. Bob Obringer
(11/22/2005 02:43 PM)

The Firefox Web Developer Toolbar is still far, far superior to the IE Developer Toolbar. It's cool that it's available, and I've actually found SOME use for it... but the Firefox Toolbar has many, many more features and it laid out so everything is easily available with a click.