Netscape problem

[Jeff Bowman]

Your code was actually quite nice and clean ... so it wasn't too much work.

Well, thanks for the compliment. I can't take full credit, though--my markup
editors had a lot to do with it.

(though I didn't like the way you did the bullet list at all!),

We can thank FrontPage for that one. I really like your UL/LI substitution--I
didn't know that could be done with images like that. Seems FP could do the same
if it wanted.

The LI elements have been set to "display:inline". Unfortunately, inline
elements can't be assigned a width.

Ah, OK. I guess I need to sit down and really study this CSS stuff. Somehow I
thought it was going to be a bit simpler.

However, there is a lot to be said in favour of variable widths for those
tabs. As they are, they only just fit a maximised browser on a 640x480
screen. If you had them all the same width, then they would end up
slightly wider in total, so would wrap around on a 640x480 display.

To tell you the truth, the only reason I'm interested in having them all the
same width is because I'm bolding the text on the selected tab, which in turn
causes it to be just a touch wider than when it's unselected. Given that, the
tabs shift around as they're being selected, a somewhat unattractive look. I
suppose I could mitigate that by not bolding the text--I'll give it some
thought.

Yes, but it's a bit of a hack:
http://www.jakpsatweb.cz/css/css-vertical-center-solution.html

I realize I'm spouting somewhat of a heresy here, but if we've got to go to all
this trouble to accomplish a goal using something that doesn't work like it's
supposed to, why not just use TABLEs where necessary? Sometimes I feel it's
prudent to abandon the struggle of esoterics in lieu of getting the job done
with something that works and moving on. For example, I lost at least a day's
productive work wrestling with this issue, when I've got tons of database
programming yet to do on the site (you straightened me out on the SPANs, though,
and I appreciate that).

Here's what I replied to Jonathan in this same thread:

Trouble is, though, I'm not able to get the exact effects I want without using
TABLEs. Left/right float DIVs tend to wrap when the browser is resized
smaller, instead of initiating a horizontal scrollbar. Here's the latest
version:

http://intexx.com/ice/new/

For the text below the tabs, I need the vertical gray separator to get taller
as the text gets higher, and I need both the text and the image to stay
vertically centered and horizontally aligned when the window is shrunk. The
only way I can find that accomplishes all of this is... well...

I know TABLEs aren't supposed to be used for layout, but doggone it they're so
much easier and they /work/

FWIW...

 

[Blinky the Shark]

To tell you the truth, the only reason I'm interested in having them all the
same width is because I'm bolding the text on the selected tab, which in turn
causes it to be just a touch wider than when it's unselected. Given that, the
tabs shift around as they're being selected, a somewhat unattractive look. I
suppose I could mitigate that by not bolding the text--I'll give it some
thought.

I've never seen or done this -- but with your particular issue, would
italicizing them on selection set them off adequately for you, without
causing them to jump about?

 

[Jeff Bowman]

I've never seen or done this -- but with your particular issue, would
italicizing them on selection set them off adequately for you, without
causing them to jump about?

Hm, maybe so.

But you know what... just the act of writing about this and reading about it
has brought me to wonder whether bolding the selected tab may not be the best
thing to do after all. I imagine I'm violating a usability guideline by doing
so.

Thinking about a tabbed dialog in a Win32 desktop interface, the selected tab is
never bolded, is it? Doing so would have it looking a bit odd, I'd say. Maybe
it's avoided there for this very reason.

I'll try it both with italics as you suggest and without bolding.

Thanks!

 

[William Hamby]

I'm having a problem with Netscape 7.1 and Mozilla 1.7.1 not respecting
these styles for the <SPAN> tag:

<span> is an element and given what it seems you are trying to achieve,
you should be using a list <ul>

 

[Jeff Bowman]

<span> is an element and given what it seems you are trying to achieve,
you should be using a list <ul>

Got it, thanks!

 

[Toby Inkster]

Thinking about a tabbed dialog in a Win32 desktop interface, the
selected tab is never bolded, is it?

No, but quite frankly I like the bold.

You could do something like reduce the padding slightly on the
selected tab. Might make up for it?

 

[Jeff Bowman]

No, but quite frankly I like the bold.

You could do something like reduce the padding slightly on the
selected tab. Might make up for it?

Ha! Thanks for contributing to my mass of indecision