Posts by MidiMagic

it may be a 'NO NO' bit it doesnt stop creatives, designers & flash sites using it which take little consideration of screen sizes anyway... unless it's expanding to 100%.

As a developer you may need to meet the requirments or specifiaction regardless of your perosnal opinion or rules.

If someone specifies something that can't be done, he is demonstrating that he is uninformed. If, after being informed, he still insists, he must be replaced. It is impossible to change the viewing user's computer to meet the bigwig's specs, and illegal to try to do so.

You can approximate a centered page on a browser window, but don't expect it to keep the same proportions or the same vertical positioning on all computers. Web pages expand downward until all of the content can be rendered. Objects with flexible sizes help, but are not always available. And a user with a low screen resolution must always scroll down on a page designed for higher resolution.

We just got a lot of LCD displays that won't display our old web pages without scrolling in both directions. The images are too big.

You have other errors in your file that will cause nonrendering of styles or large differences between IE and other browser renderings:

1. You have units of measure on 0 values (e.g. 0px). This causes some browsers to cancel the entire style. If a value is 0, do not attach a unit of measure to it.

2. You have size styles (width, height) and surrounding styles (margin, border, padding) applied to the same tag. This causes rendering differences, because IE puts the surrounding styles INSIDE the size styles, but other browsers put them outside.

If you are trying to center it vertically, that is a no-no in web design. It can't be done in a way that works on all screen resolutions and browser window sizes.

Centering horizontally is hard, because the "brains" at w3c TOOK AWAY THE EASY WAY TO DO IT, without replacing it. Unfortunately, their prescribed method doesn't work on all browsers.

You have to use different methods, depending on what you are trying to center:

Center text reliably using the following code:
In the stylesheet, place:

.cenx {text-align: center;}

Then, where you want to place the centered text, put this code:

<div class="cenx">Your Text to be Centered</div>

The div tag may be replaced by the p tag or one of the h tags.

Center images reliably using the following code:
In the stylesheet, place:

.cenx {text-align: center;}
.ceni {clear: both;}
.bxfix {margin: 0; border: none; padding: 0;}

Then, where you want to place the centered image, put this code:

<div class="bxfix cenx">
  <img src="yourimag.jpg" alt="description" class="ceni" />
</div>

There must be room for the image, or it messes up the page.

Center other objects reliably using the following code:
In the stylesheet, place:

.cenx {text-align: center;}
.ceni {clear: both;}
.bxcen {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none; padding: 0;}

Then, where you want to place the centered object, put this code:

<div class="bxcen cenx">
  <tag>Your object</tag>
</div>

Put the name of the tag for the object you …

Probably the easiest and most compatible way is to make a .gif image of the character you want. Then use:

.bul {list-style-image: url(broketbullet.gif);}

Then, at the appropriate list:

<ul class="bul">
...
</ul>

Note that if you have a sublist inside the list with the custom bullets, you will need to create another style to return the bullets or numbers of the inner list back to the proper kind.

Several possibilities:

- Is your count including the subfolders, or just the files actually in the folder you are looking at? Use the properties selection of a right click on a folder to see the subfolder inclusions added in too. Otherwise, you have to add up the subfolder sizes, and then add them to their parent folder sizes.

- The registry takes up space too. But it shouldn't be that big.

- The boot file is not on the folder list.

- Is your drive partitioned? You can see only one partition at a time.

try applying this style to a div pair inside the table cell. .imlim {width: 25px; height: 25px; overflow: hidden;}

The tbody element is designed to scroll when the table is larger than the browser window, not a container.

That is as clear as a mud puddle.

What do you WANT it to do?

You have the following choices:

- Use an image editor to either crop or shrink the image until it is 25X25. (Is that pixels, cm, or what?)

- Do the same, but save it as a second image file for use in the table. and use the full image elsewhere.

- Make the table cells big enough to hold the images.

- Make the image a background inside a div pair, inside the td pair.

Until there is uniformity among browsers and servers concerning case sensitivity, do NOT put any uppercase letters in any web page, web file, domain name, folder name, or anything else a browser or server needs to interpret.

The code does show up on Opera, Fire Fox etc. I have tested myself. I cant seem to hide it from the browsers though.

There are no html codes that hide code or text that work on all browsers. The code you are trying to use works on Internet Explorer, but it is seen as plain text on all other browsers.

The hard way is to write a javascript program to write special text onto a page.

An easier way is to have javascript hide or show a tag pair containing the text, by changing the active style for that tag.

The easiest way is to use the alt attribute of the image tag to display text when the image can not be displayed by the browser. You could even add a tiny fifth image that is invisible against (matches) the background if the browser can show it, but displays the text if the browser can't display that kind of image

Example:

<img src="blah.png" alt="Upgrade your browser to display images." />

People are not going to upgrade their browsers just to see your page, especially if that means they have to buy new computers.

The alt attribute in the img tag doesn't display unless the image can't. It is an ideal way to tell the user to upgrade if he can.

A few tips:

1. Don't put text on top of am image. This is very hard for some people to read.

2. I am totally SICK of websites with curved logos in the upper left corner that then run across the top and down the left edge.

3. I am even sicker of websites covered with moving images. Noting makes me hit the Back button faster.

Moving images are for showing how something works. They have lost all value as an attractive device, because people are sick of being bombarded by them. In addition, some of them make users mad, by taking away navigation control (by using 100% of CPU time).

4. Keep it simple. I have heard websites with too much crowded into a small area being referred to as "angry fruit cocktail."

5. Don't even think of taking control away from the user's browser with tricky programming.

6. Don't use browser-dependent code.

7. If you don't want you site to look different on different browsers, don't put nonzero surrounding styles (margin, border, padding) in any tag or stylesheet entry that has defined sizes (width, height).

8. If you change the link colors, make sure the original colors are still discernible as links. Certain browser accessibility settings remove the ability to change link colors. Instead, design the background so the links show if they are either the standard color or the changed color.

9. Design your colors so they …

That is nonstandard code that works in IE, but not other browsers. So of course, the other bowsers ignore the codes.

Why not just use more compatible images.

If you won't do that, put a short disclaimer in the alt= part of the image tag. Then it displays only if the image can't.

I had this happen several years ago.

It turned out that the photo processing company had placed white edges on the digital files. This happened because my camera exposed the negatives in an area slightly undersized, compared to their scanner. I had to use a photo editor to crop the photo.

You haven't given public read permission for your pages. Only you can see them.

I don't understand the limit on searches applying when I go BACK, from the first search item I looked at, to see the results list again to look at another found item.

It should not perform the search again, but it tries to, and replaces the results list I want to use with the error message.

Float tells the browser whether to make the text flow to the left or the right of an object.

Several problems:

- The <!-- --> tag pair does not work in xhtml to hide scripts and styles. Styles work in xhtml without those tags, and scripts should be external.

- Absolute and relative positioning are NOT browser-independent. Don't use them. Instead, place a container around the menu area, and let the menu items fit against each other inside it.

- Remember putting that nonzero surrounding styles (margin, border, padding) in the same tag or style definition that contains size styles (width, height) causes browser incompatibilities. IE nests them in the wrong order. Nest two tags, and apply one kind of these styles to each tag.

- Stuff appearing on top of other stuff doesn't always work right. The technology is not yet universally defined.

I don't want to pay extra for fancy looks.

I have sets of styles I use.

- A basic set that includes styles for centering text, images, and objects.
- A palette of colors for backgrounds.
- Styles for div columns.
- Table styles.

I start with the basic styles, and add others as I need them. I build the site top down, as one would build an outline in English class.

Display the title of the page instead of the link. Or do something like this:

<p><a href="this.is.the/really/long/url.htm">this.is.the/</a>
<br />really/long/url.htm</p>

Or even this:

<p><a href="this.string.is.the/really/long/url.htm">this.string.is.the/</a>
<br /><a href="this.is.the/really/long/url.htm">really/long/url.htm</a></p>

The last one makes both pieces of the link text active.

Several errors:

- 0px is not a valid style. use 0 for all zero values, with no unit of measure. 0 with a unit of measure makes a Firefox error. It creates a value which is not 0 instead.

- Don't put size styles (width, height) and nonzero surrounding styles (margin, border, padding) in the same style or tag. It won't work right, making incompatibilities in browsers. IE crams the surrounding styles INSIDE the width, Firefox and other standards-complying browsers put the surrounding styles OUTSIDE the width. If you need both, nest a tag with one kind inside a tag with the other kind.

- Use percentages for widths, instead of pixels or points.

One script can't see new objects another script creates. It sees only the original document structure at the time the page opened.

The driver might be compatible, but the software to control and use the camera might not be.

Take it as a rule of thumb that most software that needs real-time operation will not survive a changeover to Microsoft's next operating system, unless multiple version compatibility files are sold in the package.

There should be a link visible to only the original poster just above the quick reply window.

This is a setting in the Options dialog box.

MidiMagic, I think, well actually, I know each of the above comments are incorrect. I've used 0px for styles on all the websites I've built and likewise, I've used margin, padding and borders in a single stylesheet element for a lot of those sites.

All my websites validate to W3C HTML 4.01 strict and CSS standards with 0 errors or warnings. So, if 0px is an invalid style, it would have been picked up. Likewise, I am pleased to say that my websites using these stylesheets are pixel perfect between FFX2, FFX3, IE6, IE7, Netscape, Opera and Safari.

Just some food for thought.

0px, 0pt, and other zero values with dimensions kick Firefox into quirks mode, and often prevents the style containing it from operating. It shows up as an error in the Firefox error console. It works, but in quirks mode.

But note that I use XHTML 1.0 Strict. This might be a deprecation in XHTML, but it is not caught by the W3C validator.

I use 4 tests on each page I produce or refurbish:

- Spellcheck

- W3C validation

- Browser rendering correctness and differences between browsers

- Firefox Error Console

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You misread the part about the margins, borders, and padding. What does not work right is putting size styles (width, height) in the SAME tag that has nonzero surrounding styles (margin, border, padding). Nest two tags if you need both kinds of styles.

This second item …

This is mainly slight differences in rendering that you can't control. Notice that IE renders each font character one pixel wider than FF does. They also have different default paddings around characters.

Do your images together make a size larger than your IE browser cache setting? Try trading the images, and see if the other one displays instead.

If your image is larger than the selected number of pixels in the tag, it won't display.

This is a case that needs a table. It is extremely difficult to do it with divs and css. But you can certainly use css to format the table.

If the sides are empty, just use padding on the body tag.

There is a misconception on removing tables from websites:

The original problem was the misuse of tables, because there were no margin, border, or padding attributes available without tables. So web programmers started using tables to create these styles.

Tables should be removed if they are used to create margins, borders, or padding on otherwise plain sites.

Tables should be retained if a strict layout is needed, because they are the only web objects that always hold the positions of the contents the same, relative to each other. Pure div/css designs fall apart if the contents don't fit.

For example, my home page is designed with two div columns, but it collapses to one column with a low-resolution browser, a small browser window, or on Web TV.

A few points:

- 0px is an invalid style. It causes browser errors. Use 0 for values that are zero.

- Convert all size and alignment tag attributes to styles.

- Use classes, so each set of styles can be used on all tags needing it.

- Use relative sizes, as percentages of the width of the containing element.

- Don't place nonzero surrounding styles (margin. border, padding) and size styles (width, height) in the same tag or style. Putting them together causes browser incompatibilities, because IE nests them in the wrong order.

- Convert one property type at a time. Then test the changes.

- Use tables if you need a structure to hang together when the window size changes. Use divs if you want to allow the content to slide around for maximum visibility without horizontal scrolling.

- Don't use absolute positioning or styles, except for image sizes.

- Test the page with different browsers and screen resolutions. Also play with the browser window size (in restore down), to see what happens when the resolution or window size becomes small.

- Use the W3C validator page.

Are you talking about the missing green lines in the borders?

You have empty div pairs. Nothing is placed between the tags. This is a nonstandard use (a no-no in web page design). There is no guarantee that an empty pair of tags will be rendered. If there is room, it will render, but if it is squeezed for space, it will be skipped.

Why don't you just enclose the text in a div with a border style?

Another possibility is that the line of pixels containing the border is not rendering because the display unit decided to skip that line.

Don't assume that everyone had the capability to open a compressed file. This ability is purposely banned from the computers I use.

Make sure the styles for the top, middle, and bottom have widths of 100 percent in them, and margins and paddings of 0. If you want margins or paddings on any of these, nest more divs inside them with the padding and margin styles wanted.

<div id="wrapper">
  <div id="top">
    Top content.
  </div>
  <div id="middle">
    <img src="fid.jpg" />
  </div>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td>
        Left content.
      </td>
      <td>
        Right content.
      <td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  <div id="bottom">
    Bottom content.
  </div>
</div>

I can think of several reasons:

- Different browser communications settings.

- Different methods for the way the browser assembles the page.

- Different handshaking orders.

- Different methods of resizing images to fit.

- Different methods of displaying (maybe one waits until the entire image is downloaded before displaying any of it)

- Different internet cache settings.

- Fragmented internet cache on one browser.

- If both are installed on the same computer, the second one might get a less optimum cache space. It's even worse if both programs are open.

- Different virus checker settings or methods.

It's never going to work with absolute settings. Different browsers will render it differently. Different screen resolutions and window sizes also cause trouble with absolute settings. Use percentage of page settings instead.

You may also be seeing the IE/FF incompatibility. Placing both size styles (width, height) and surrounding styles (margin, border, padding) in the same tag or style causes all kinds of strange fit problems.

It is the nature of a div structure to fall apart if it won't fit. You will never create a div structure that holds its shape under all conditions. The reason it doesn't work is that there is no equivalent to the tr tag in div structures. Browsers float div tags wherever they will fit.

If you absolutely need the same structure to hold together for all window sizes and screen resolutions, use a table. It is not deprecated. There is a misconception about what is good web practice and what is not.

What is discouraged is using table tags to create borders, margins, and padding around website objects. At one time, this was the only way to put margins around pages.

The reason some people don't want tables used for page structuring is that it is confusing to people using a speaking reader for the blind. But if the table is used for just the two parallel columns, and not the rest of the page, it works well, and is not too confusing, since it is a table of …

Your background color is overriding the background image, because it is later in the stylesheet.

Please don't! I am totally sick of this kind of page. They make me hit the BACK button.

Use the onclick option on a web page object to call a JS function that sets the checked value to true.

What burner software are you using? Windows can't do it by itself.

You don't have enough cache memory if that happens. This is a browser setting, not something you can control in a program.

If the entire page won't fit in the unused cache space, the browser will dump the entire cache to make room for the new page. It does not first check to see if content is the same.

Use styles instead of center or align=center.

Is the screen set to a low resolution? Some video games do that.

80 characters per line would fit if there were not a stripe down the side for ads.

Several facts:

- The viewport height is not normally something the page rendering engine takes into account. It is expected to place things against the top, and then add them on downward until it runs out of material. The emphasis is in fitting things to the page horizontally. If it won't fit, the page expands downward.

- Vertical centering is not generally provided, because of the above, and because different computers have different screen resolutions.

- It is almost impossible to make something exactly fit a page in all browsers, screen resolutions, font size settings, opened window sizes, and browser defaults.

- You can define styles for the td and th tags setting the text-align and vertical-align styles to what you want. This overrides the browser defaults.

- To keep stuff from rendering different between IE and FF, do not put size styles (height and width) and nonzero surrounding styles (margin, border, and padding) in the same tags or styles. IE and FF render them in the opposite nesting order. Use two nested tag pairs to specify the order they will be applied.

I suggest that you center things horizontally, and let the vertical parts end up where they do. Busting your buttons over trying to center stuff on the page vertically in all browsers and window sizes is a waste of time.

You do not have the RIGHT to mess with someone else's computer. That includes the clipboard. It does not belong to you.

That person may have multiple windows open, where he is actively using the clipboard to move content between documents. He might even be doing this automatically under a script. If he pauses to check his email, and someone links him to your page, he is going to be really mad when his clipboard contents from the other process are disrupted. And if he gets someone's porn pictures in a customer's file (instead of his engine parts diagram), because you were messing with the clipboard, you might get slapped with a charge of computer invasion.

If your precious pictures are so valuable, then DON'T put them on a website. Suggestions on legal ways of doing what you want without breaking laws:

- If you are selling the photos, put low resolution versions on the site. Make sure you actually reduce the file size, not just the dimensions. Last week, I downloaded a thumbnail, and found the entire picture in the file - at 1200 px/in - I just had to enlarge it with a photo editor, reducing the resolution to 200 px/in in the process.

- If the user is paying for a download, I should think he should have the right to save a copy.

- If the person saved a copy for private use for research purposes, it is legal. The copyright …

Several questions:

1. How are you starting the scripts? If you don't specify how they start (i.e. onclick, etc.), only the last one defined in the body tag will start.

2. Are the scripts in the header? Scripts in the header will not run until told to by a command in a tag in the body.

3. Did you think of calling one script from the other?

4. Do the scripts have some variable names in common? Make sure they do not share variable names. All global variables will keep their values from one script to the other.

Both are required to make the page validate with the W3C. Validation is a very good way to troubleshoot a malfunctioning page. It also makes the employers happy if you can make valid pages.

That meta tag is not used to guide search engines, but to tell the browser what character set to use. It is required for validation.

I am totally sick of website creators trying to control the user's computer.

Such functions belong to the owner of the computer, NOT TO YOU!

If you don't want people printing your precious little pictures, don't publish them on the Internet.

You need a clear: both; style to get full width again.