Why can't EW use IE's rendering engine

in design view?

[steve]

I've been using EW (and EW2 beta) pretty extensively for the last few weeks.

One thing which really bugs me is that EW uses its own rendering engine, which is easily confused by simple CSS layouts. So in design view the page doesn't always appear as it does in a browser, meaning I'm forever having to flip back and forth to see what the page really looks like.

Would it be that difficult for MS to use their own browser engine, or even better allow users to plug more standard compliant ones like Firefox's or Opera's?

[Wlauzon]

You can use any browser to preview, including FF.

But you will probably never find a true 100% WYS editor, as some code and scripts simply do not work right and has to be loaded into a live page.

[steve]

You can use any browser to preview, including FF

Yes, but wouldn't it be nice not to need to?

If EW used IE's rendering engine, what you saw in wysiwyg design mode would be what you saw in IE (for static pages).

They could at least make EW fully compliant, so CSS behaves as it should. Then you would know it will look reasonable in FF and Opera, and just needs previewing and hacking for IE!

some code and scripts simply do not work right

True, that's a more difficult one!

[Wlauzon]

I have heard vague rumors that the original EW used the IE6 rendering engine, but the new beta uses the IE8 one.

However nobody seems to be able to confirm that.

[pageoneresults]

One thing which really bugs me is that EW uses its own rendering engine, which is easily confused by simple CSS layouts.

I'll agree that EW and FrontPage have their flaws in this area. I've come to find out over the years that some of those flaws were actually in my CSS. A few tweaks here and there and viola, I can now see what the rest of the world is seeing.

But, since I edit at the browser level, it has never been of major concern. And, we use asp include files which don't execute at the local level anyway (can't see the WYSIWYG) without jumping through hoops and installing IIS locally. IE and F5 all the way. :)

[steve]

I have heard vague rumors that the original EW used the IE6 rendering engine, but the new beta uses the IE8 one.

I read it's a custom engine. Neither version of EW renders like any version of IE - except perhaps IE5 ;-)

[steve]

On reflection, the rendering engine in EW has to do much more than a browsers. It has to allow users to move items, resize them, their borders and margins, etc. Its probably easier to write from scratch rather than adapting IE's engine, but it would still be nice if it rendered at bit more accurately!

I've come to find out over the years that some of those flaws were actually in my CSS. A few tweaks here and there and viola

I hear you, but when you are learning CSS, EW can convince you there are errors in your code when there aren't! I spent ages looking for the problem in some simple CSS for a row of tabs, only to find they worked perfectly in IE, FF and Opera and passed the W3C test.

I still find FP2003 renders more reliably than EW, I'm sure this is something MS will want to improve on in later versions. IMO its the one thing making EW a good tool not a great tool!