positioning problems w/horizontal bar

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Wednesday August 27 2003 - 20:33:06 BST

My menu seems to work correctly on most machines, but I've found a few where the menu positions higher on the screen than it should. I'm only using the absolute positioning and haven't yet messed with the relative positioning - seems to cause more problems?

http://desertmuseum.org

The problems are not related to the browser version or the OS. I think it has something to do with other individual settings of user's computer. Because of the problem, I'm trying to convert to version 5, but haven't gotten it to work yet.

Kim, webmaster __at__ desertmuseum.org

Poster: Maz
Dated: Wednesday August 27 2003 - 20:43:13 BST

I get a script error line 88, may be the problem.

maz

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Wednesday August 27 2003 - 21:07:54 BST

Hmmm. I don't see the error. Can you tell me which browser/utility gave you the error msg? Thanks, K

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday August 27 2003 - 23:23:31 BST

Hey Tucson...

Haven't been to your place in quite some time. Need to get back down there.

You're givin' an old guy a headache here. I'm not seeing any errors like maz is, but I am seeing some funny menu ops (later), and one very confusing item.

You have defined "Main" and "Mainmenu", both at 198/0, but with different styles, and only one with menus in it. Is that a goof, or am I missing something?

In the main menu the swapimages are not always working. No idea why, but as I run back and forth across the menu sometimes they highlight (swap), and sometimes not. However, the menus still drop even when they don't swap.

The other problem is in the submenus. Drop About ASDM and drag slowly down the menu. As you pass between Quick Facts and Calendar of Events the menu loses focus and then closes. Same thing is true if you drop Quick Facts and then move the mouse off to the right of the word Facts (not off the menu). Again it loses focus and closes. The same is true for Planning a Visit, Education, Kids, and ASDM Press. For some reason the others are OK.

Don't have an answer on this, but I'm looking. One thing you might try is setting your padding a little lower (although that doesn't explain why some work and some don't).

You should also seriously consider going to v5. Lots more features, and the one you're on now is no longer being supported or developed. Just a thought.

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Thursday August 28 2003 - 0:31:02 BST

Thanks for taking a look John - yes, my menus are a bit of a mess. A while back I quickly copied in the code and didn't pay much attention (it seemed to work fine on the previous version of our site). I just got version 5 and am working on that now. Unfortunately, the converter didn't work for me -- probably because my code was too funky. I'm also switching away from the image swaps and going to straight text.

Once I get that done, I'll revisit the positioning problem. I'm trying to have everything working by tomorrow - may be a long night for me. K

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Thursday August 28 2003 - 7:14:43 BST

I've got everything into version 5 and all cleaned up. Still having trouble with the absolute positioning - slight differences vertically in different browsers. Any ideas?
http://desertmuseum.org
Kim

Poster: Maz
Dated: Thursday August 28 2003 - 8:00:31 BST

Looks good, very old mac and IE 5.1, there is no avoiding 15px white on the right, that's this old browser. Nothing wrong with vertical, if you don't like what you see, you can fake the background to match the menu colors.

regards
maz

Poster: John
Dated: Thursday August 28 2003 - 15:20:39 BST

Definitely looks like somebody was up late

Looks good. I checked with IE6/Win2K and Safari1.0/OS X and saw no differences. Everything was right on. All the errors I mentioned yesterday are no more.

BTW, you can still put that long 'info bar' you had on the Home menu if you want. Just use the header parameter.

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Thursday August 28 2003 - 19:43:35 BST

Thanks for checking on your machines. I'm relieved to know the page looks right on most machines.

Unfortunately several of the computers at work (exec director included), show the menu up too high on the page and overlapping the search box and some of the top images. They are using IE 5.5 on Win 2000 and 98. I've got the exact same set up and mine looks fine. The closest I've come to duplicating the position problem is with Netscape 4.8, and changing the font sizes - the page changes so that the menus are higher on the page (until you hit refresh and everything is fine again).

Normally I wouldn't be too worried if a small % of folks saw the menu slightly differently, but in this case its important folks who are seeing the strange display. I'll try the relative positioning next, but I'm worried about the co-exec director who uses Safari. Thanks in advance for any more ideas...

Poster: John
Dated: Thursday August 28 2003 - 19:53:49 BST

Some of your folks are going back pretty far with 5.5 and 98. Some problems are to be expected (that's not a dig on the menu, just in general).

As for your Safari user, is it the release version of Safari (1.0(v85)), and is the OS 10.2.6? If not, get it updated. Also keep in mind that even though Safari is release, it still has a bunch of bugs. I say terrible things to it almost every night, but it's still a lot better than IE.

Make those points to your Co-ED (I've been in Mac since before it was even released!). Better yet, send me a ticket and I'll make a museum-call

system-wide font size change

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Friday August 29 2003 - 0:22:55 BST

Finally I know what is causing the problem - now I only have to figure out a way around it.

My menu changes position when folks set their windows display properties to a larger font size -- sometimes making the menu cover over important parts of the page. Wouldn't be a problem if the menu was in the very top left corner, but my client really doesn't like it there.

John - not sure on the answer to the Safari user, but his machine is displaying the menu perfectly - as is my linux box using Konqueror.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Saturday August 30 2003 - 4:57:55 BST

I read these because I get some good info on things. I was wondering if there's a way to get around how the browser sets their 'text' size, maybe some kind of code that tells it not to change size? Like they have the noprint and such? Just curious

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Sunday August 31 2003 - 15:15:46 BST

I thought if you set your font sizes using pixels (aka using style sheets and setting your fonts using say 12px) that it would lock in the font size of the site and people couldnt change that. Yeah, it makes it annoying to people that like to change how the site reads, but at least you are guaranteed the look you were trying to achieve.

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Sunday August 31 2003 - 16:32:46 BST

I use px to set the font size with CSS, and IE generally doesn't allow the fonts to change on my pages. The real problem for me is when people change their system-wide font size. Their browser font size might be set to normal, but in Windows, their display properties font is set large or xtra large.

Since my site's demographics skew older, and you don't have to be too computer savvy to change the display properties font, this is a real problem for me as it forces the menu to change postition on the page.

Kim

Poster: John
Dated: Tuesday September 2 2003 - 16:56:36 BST

I always use px/css to set font sizes (much better cross-browser compatibility than pt), and have the same problem you do with not being able to change the display via the browser menu. Unfortunate, but I feel I need to maintain at least a little control over what I'm trying to do.