" />
Windows Internet Explorer blank page problem
September 11, 2008
I had a weird Internet Explorer page display problem with one of my Web sites. All but one of the site’s pages displayed just fine, but one just resulted in a blank page. After Googling for similar problems for hours, I gave that up and tried some basic debugging. More of that in a moment . . . . The Google results pointed to a lot of similar problems, e.g. opening a link in a new window caused IE to open a blank window. One suggestion had to do with Active X controls and trusted sites. Even after I got into the IE Tools > Internet Options > Trusted Sites > Sites dialog box and making the site a Trusted Site, I still had the problem. I undid the Trusted Site changes, and then went back to basics.
Using Dreamweaver CS3 (as I had done for the original), I created a new blank HTML file, and then cut and pasted the original file into it, one code block at a time. That way I could test each iteration of the file and isolate the code block or line that might have caused the problem. I was able to display the page as I went, adding all of the original HTML. The only thing I omitted were the commented lines that get inserted into an HTML file when you create Image Ready slices.
The end result is that when I removed the comments the problem disappeared; the page displayed just fine. I’m happy it worked, but mystified because I have had no problems on the same platform (described below) with loads of other files that contain the Image Ready comments, as well as other sorts of commented lines.
The scenario in which the problem occurred: Internet Explorer version 7.0.5730.13 on Windows XP Professional running on my iMac’sParallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac. HTML files created in Dreamweaver CS3. Original created from slices/HTML in ImageReady CS2. [Yes, I know I don't need ImageReady anymore if I have CS3, but I prefer to use the Photoshop CS2 and ImageReady CS2.] Page validates as HTML 4.01 Transitional.
Comments
Do you have a comment or a question?