In order to use Adobe BrowserLab you must have an Adobe account you can sign in with - which isn't a big deal as you can register for free anyway. Once you're signed in you get an address bar where you can type in the URL of the site you want to analyse. Once you have typed the URL of your site it will then start to generate previews of the site as it will look in different browsers. The default setting will get it to load previews for Firefox 3.0 (Windows XP), Internet Explorer 7 (Windows XP), Safari 3.0 (Mac OS X) and Firefox 3.0 (Mac OS X).
You also get the option to generate views for:
- Chrome 3.0 (Windows XP)
- Internet Explorer 6.0 (Windows XP)
- Firefox 2.0 (Windows XP)
- Firefox 3.5 (Windows XP)
- Internet Explorer 8.0 (Windows XP)
- Safari 4.0 (Mac OS X)
- Firefox 2.0 (Mac OS X)
- Firefox 3.5 (Mac OS X)
If you find the default ones aren't the ones you want to use the most often then you can create a new "Browser set" to include the ones you want from the button at the top of the screen labelled "Browser sets". With these views loaded you can then view them with or without rulers as 1-up (one on the screen at a time), 2-up (two on the screen side by side), and Onion view.
The onion view is there for those who want their site design to be pixel perfect between browsers as it will overlay the views over each other so you can see where the design is off slightly. This view is also aided by the rules I mentioned previously as they work in a similar fashion to Photoshop where guides within the rulers move as you move around the image meaning that you can get precise measurements too.
For speed and accessibility they also provide a number of hotkeys that replicate some of the common features such as wanting to zoom in and out of the screenshots, and to navigate around the site with.
It may still be in the Adobe Labs section, but I find this new product to be very promising and a valuable tool in any designers arsenal.
