There is a wide variety of platform and browser combinations in the mobile web environment, more than a hundred such combinations. Screen sizes vary widely, too, from mobile phones with tiny screens in the 100-150 pixel range to pocket PCs with screens that are 600 pixels wide. To make things a little easier for you during the design process, you can install mobile device emulators on your PC and view the files on your hard drive as you’re working on them. There are several options available.

Getting emulators

Note: All of these links will open in new browser windows.

Recent versions of Dreamweaver (CS3 or later) offer a suite of mobile device emulators built into the package. Education discounts are available.

Download the Opera web browser. You can view your pages in small screen mode on your workstation (use the View menu > Small Screen option). There's also an Opera for Mobile version of the browser, and it’s installed on millions of mobile devices. Opera is free of charge as of this writing.

Tips:

• For the ultimate emulation experience, minimize your Opera browser window to a 150-pixel width!
• To locate emulator software for specific devices, do a Google search for "mobile emulator."