title: Verify XPath is valid with developer tools in Internet Explorer 8
body: <p>I'm writing Selenium tests, and I need to support Internet&nbsp;Explorer&nbsp;8.</p>
  
  <p>I want to use Developer Tools in Internet&nbsp;Explorer&nbsp;8 to verify that Internet&nbsp;Explorer&nbsp;8 can find certain elements by their XPath expressions. I can do this easily using Chrome of Firebug with Firefox, but I can't figure out how to do it with IE Developer Tools -- it feels very clunky, foreign, and unintuitive for someone coming from Chrome and and Firebug with Firefox.</p>
  
  <p>I'm <strong>not</strong> trying to get an element's XPath expression with Developer Tools. (The web has plenty of links for how to do that.) I'm trying to verify that XPath expressions <em>which I already have</em> will work in Internet&nbsp;Explorer&nbsp;8 using Developer Tools.</p>
  
  <p>If I want to verify that an XPath expression finds an element in Chrome, I would:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Navigate to the page I want to verify</li></li>
  <li>Press <kbd>F12</kbd> to bring up Chrome debugger</li></li>
  <li>Press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>F</kbd> to bring up find</li></li>
  <li>Type or paste in the XPath expression that I want to test</li></li>
  <li>See if the XPath expression found an element.</li></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Here is an image of what it looks like in Chrome:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/f84EN.png" alt="Verifying an XPath expression in Chrome"></p>
  
  <p>I would like to do the same thing in Internet&nbsp;Explorer&nbsp;8.
  How can I do this?</p>
  
  <p>I have seen <em><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/214862/equivalent-of-firebugs-copy-xpath-in-internet-explorer">Equivalent of Firebug's “Copy Xpath” in Internet Explorer?</a></em> which tries to get the XPath expression from the webelement. I'm trying to do the opposite: get the webelement from the XPath expression to verify the XPath expression is valid in Internet&nbsp;Explorer&nbsp;8.</p>