# Why doesn't my website show up correctly in IE?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 3, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506 "2007-04-03T01:10:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506/1 "2007-04-03T01:10:04Z")

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I cannot for the life of my figure out why [my website](http://theunsettled.org/) is all maladjusted when I open it in IE.

I’m not good at webdesign, and I’ve asked at the Wordpress page. The answer was:

> [@](#):
>
> You’ve got a lot of empty elements which you aren’t closing; 3 span’s and 11 li’s. That’s what’s most likely making IE render it so badly.

I don’t know how to fix that. If anyone can help me, I’d appreciate it greatly.

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**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506/2 "2007-04-03T01:44:52Z")

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For the \<li\> tags, instead of

\<li\>Some point  
\<li\>Another point

write:

\<li\>some point\</li\>  
\<li\>Another point\</li\>

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**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506/3 "2007-04-03T03:25:11Z")

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I need to be much more specific. You see, I looked at my page source with Firefox and saw that there were a bunch of \<li\> that weren’t closed. The thing is, I don’t know what the corresponding folder is on my folder that I can edit. For instance, the first unclosed \<li\> is here:

> [@](#):
>
> \<li\> \<h2 class=“widgettitle”\>\<a class=‘rsswidget’ href=‘[http://theunsettled.org/?feed=rss](http://theunsettled.org/?feed=rss)’ title=‘Syndicate this content’\>\<img width=‘14’ height=‘14’ src=‘[http://theunsettled.org/wp-content/plugins/widgets/rss.png](http://theunsettled.org/wp-content/plugins/widgets/rss.png)’ alt=‘RSS’ /\>\</a\> \<a class=‘rsswidget’ href=‘[http://theunsettled.org](http://theunsettled.org)’ title=‘I’d sit down if I could touch the ground.’\>Subscribe to RSS Feed\</a\>\</h2\>

I’ve looked through my wp-content folder and can’t find anything that corresponds with that. Shouldn’t there be a file called “rsswidget”?

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**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506/4 "2007-04-03T04:18:21Z")

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No, “rsswidget” is for css. In your stylesheet, there should be an entry for a.rsswidget or somesuch.

This has nothing to do with your problem, however. I only worked on a single WP site, but the offending line is probably in a .php file.

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**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506/5 "2007-04-03T04:33:14Z")

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Just close the \<li\>. There is not something hidden off in some other file that’s the real problem.

And any \<br\> tags or whatever, change them to \<br/\>. Change \<hr\> to \<hr/\>.

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**Author:** ![Gentle\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gentle\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gentle_Robot)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-website-show-up-correctly-in-ie/398506/6 "2007-04-03T04:41:20Z")

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Internet Explorer 6.0 does not recognize the CSS properties right or bottom. When you set right:0 it does nothing. If you float: right it may work, as long as it’s in a container with the other columns. Otherwise, use a value of left that will place it in the same position.

The LI thing they’re telling you is bullshit. It’s not your HTML, it’s your CSS.