How to force IE8 into compatibility mode WITHOUT clicking the button

I was recently asked to assist my city with their website. What i found when i went there, was they had been using Web Expressions. When they previewed the page within the program, it looked fine, when you open it in any other browser though, the layout it all over riding each other and everything is all jumbled.

They don开发者_JS百科't want to re start anything so the only thing that i am trying to do is force the IE 8 to render it as IE 7.

I've been researching for awhile now and i know about the line of code and i've tried this, it works even, however, they don't like the idea of having their users have to use a button. Is there a way to have the IE8 go straight into compatibility mode without having the users click the compatibility button?

I also know about the documentMode, can that be set to = 7 in javascript? Would that change anything?

If you've not already done so, try putting this in the header of your HTML:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

More information: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325(v=vs.85).aspx