itemwidth menu item property, IE MacOSX 5.2

Poster: rangerted
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 0:16:36 BST

==> update 2. an effective work around to the IE MacOSX itemwidth situation delineated below:
* drop padding property from main menu style definition: ensures that padding is not a factor in itemwidth
* reposition submenus to compensate for loss of offset, w/out padding

simple, works fine, as long as you can do without padding in the style definition for main menu.


==> update. Initial analysis in the report below was incorrect; the problem is apparently not that IE MacOSX doesn't "work" with itemwidth property but that the browser displays itemwidth differently.

Horizontal display offset of the menu in IE OSX is 108px (less, total) in a seven-item menu, as compared with other browsers tested. 108 px just happens to = 6 * (2 *9), which represents the total horizontal padding for all menu items.

In the menu in question, it initially appeared as if itemwidth was simply not operating; but setting itemwidth values much higher --where I could visually note that the property was effective-- led me to conclude that IE was likely just representing display values differently. Is IE OSX including padding as part of itemwidth total? Seems like i've seen that behavior elsewhere: for example, in positioning of horizontally floated DIVs with padding.

Is there another way to address IE OSX's apparently eccentric behavior, in use of the itemwidth property? Probaby could drop padding property and compensate for the corresponding, changed vertical positions of drop-down menus ...

---
fwiw, here's the simple style and menu:

with(menuStyle=new mm_style()){
oncolor="#F26118";
offcolor="#505050";
padding=9;
fontsize="10px";
fontfamily="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif";
}

with(milonic=new menuname("Main")){
style=menuStyle;
top=63;
left=27;
alwaysvisible=1;
orientation="horizontal";
aI("text=Beginning;showmenu=Beginning;itemwidth=80;");
aI("text=Intermediate-A;showmenu=Intermediate-A;itemwidth=110;");
aI("text=Intermediate-B;showmenu=Intermediate-B;itemwidth=110;");
aI("text=Advanced-A;showmenu=Advanced-A;itemwidth=90;");
aI("text=Advanced-B;showmenu=Advanced-B;itemwidth=95;");
aI("text=Superior;showmenu=Superior;itemwidth=75;");
aI("text=Site Index;url=#;itemwidth=100;");
}

============ original message follows ============
Have need for specific item widths in major menu headings in a horizontal menu.

Refer to related discussions in
http://www.milonic.com/pipermail/miloni ... 02013.html

.. and item property descriptions in
http://www.milonic.com/itemproperties.php

"itemwidth" property works fine in major browsers tested .. except IE 5.2, MacOSX. Unfortunately, it's one of the target browsers.

Only useable workaround is seemingly to append menu item text with mutiple   (see discussion above) to fill out space -- an inexact solution.

Any other workarounds or fixes? Thanks.

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 2:07:39 BST

Are you specifying itemwidth in the style or in the menu item itself? Try it in either and/or both.

Poster: John
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 2:55:13 BST

Just curious, but given there is to be no further development or releases on IE/X, and Safari is fast taking over that market, why is it a target browser?

Poster: rangerted
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 4:18:25 BST



In the menu item(s) themseleves; each has a different itemwidth:

with(milonic=new menuname("Main")){
style=menuStyle;
top=63;
left=27;
alwaysvisible=1;
orientation="horizontal";
aI("text=Beginning;showmenu=Beginning;itemwidth=80;");
aI("text=Intermediate-A;showmenu=Intermediate-A;itemwidth=110;");
aI("text=Intermediate-B;showmenu=Intermediate-B;itemwidth=110;");
aI("text=Advanced-A;showmenu=Advanced-A;itemwidth=90;");
aI("text=Advanced-B;showmenu=Advanced-B;itemwidth=95;");
aI("text=Superior;showmenu=Superior;itemwidth=75;");
aI("text=Site Index;url=#;itemwidth=100;");
}

Wouldn't work as property in the style definition, at least in tests. Not sure how that work, anyway, since each item has a different value ..

Poster: rangerted
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 4:23:53 BST



Reasonable question .. which i restrained myself from addressing in previous post.

It's a legacy issue in this particular corner of the world - users with MacOS 9/habitual IE usage in OSX. Personally, I'd be happy to ignore IE, but it's not going to go away completely around here (wild guess) for a year or so.

Poster: John
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 16:18:34 BST


Understood, and, unfortunately, you're probably correct...

Poster: Marc-Andre.Roberge __at__ mus.ul
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 16:58:03 BST

I am wondering whether this topic has something to do with mine <http://www.milonic.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2659&sid=1c5a1cf0e71e3dcc84a6847fdae5d2e6>, posted earlier today. Curiously, this user passes "100" as a parameter to "idemwidth"; it was suggested that I use "100%". Could this be a part of the problem? Just in case it is important, I am using IE 6.00.2800.1106.

Poster: John
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 17:05:58 BST

There was an updated version of RC12 posted earlier today with a number of fixes. Give that a try and let us know.

Poster: Marc-Andre.Roberge __at__ mus.ul
Dated: Monday September 29 2003 - 18:19:31 BST

The RC12 release dated 29 September at 18:15 remains unchanged with regard to extending the menu bar to the edge of the screen.

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Tuesday September 30 2003 - 1:41:30 BST

Yeah I havent seen it yet, but doesnt it extend almost to the edge of the screen? I am referring to the 100% tweak.

Oh and BTW, putting the itemwidth in the style would be an easy way to get all your menu items to be the same width. Just FYI.

Poster: Marc-Andre.Roberge __at__ mus.ul
Dated: Tuesday September 30 2003 - 14:24:34 BST

Just to make things clear, what I mean is that, up to RC9, using "itemwidth=100%" (see code below) in a supplementary main menu item caused the menu bar to extend to the very right edge of the screen, as you can see at <http://www.mus.ulaval.ca/roberge/gdrm/> (I am using RC9 on the public version). From RC11 onwards (or RC9, I cannot say), the menu bar stops at the end of the last menu item; in other words, the end of the menu bar is aligned with the right edge of the second square with small type.

Poster: John
Dated: Tuesday September 30 2003 - 14:50:51 BST

Looking at your link now under XP Pro/IE6 and I'm not seeing your short menu. After 'Guides' the menu background extends all the way to the right edge of the screen. Unable to look right now in OS X.

Poster: Marc-Andre.Roberge __at__ mus.ul
Dated: Tuesday September 30 2003 - 14:54:09 BST

That's exactly how I want things to appear (since what you saw uses RC9). Unfortunately, what made this possible under RC9 no longer works in RC11 and RC12.

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday October 1 2003 - 5:04:32 BST

I see you're still running RC9. Are you not going to move to RC13?

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Wednesday October 1 2003 - 14:53:37 BST

The reason he doesnt want to move up to RC13 is because the feature he's looking for isn't working right in RC13...it only works in RC9. I am guessing he wants to wait until the most recent RC solves the itemwidth = 100% bug.

Whoa, almost to 1000 there John! I think we should put in a rank system to show off your brass!

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday October 1 2003 - 19:34:20 BST

When I posted that I thought it might have been taken care of in that barrage Andy unleashed yesterday, but later I remembered that's one of the two items left before final. Gettin' old, I guess.

As for 1,000 - hard to believe. Then again, you're catching up fast...