Known Web Site ProblemsOttoson Middle School |
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Known Web Site ProblemsOttoson Middle School |
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COMPATIBILITY CHALLENGEWhy things go wrongWeb pages are nothing more than plain text that has formatting tags embedded in it . These tags, known as HTML, are interpreted by your Internet browser. Unfortunately, different browsers may interpret these tags differently, or not at all. This is especially true for older browsers. The problem is made worse by multiple HTML specifications. Our web pages also use JAVA scripts. These too may be misinterpreted or ignored. How pages should lookIf you think your browser is not displaying the web pages correctly, you may compare what you see on your screen to the pictures below. We have provided two pictures: a picture of the home page and a picture of a typical page. To see the pictures, click on the links below. For your convenience, these links will open in new windows. Please keep in mind that even if your browser is interpreting the pages correctly, they may still not look exactly like the pictures. Small differences should be expected. If there are significant differences, please let us know. Text (font) sizeIf the text (font) size is too small or too large, you can change it in your browser. The text sizes of all formatting elements are specified as relative. This means that you can increase or decrease all of the text size simultaneously (although it make take a while before you can find the required command in your browser). The text size in the menu buttons (top of each page) can be changed only in newer browsers. The text size in MORE and Site Map buttons cannot be changed. CompromisesDesigns of web pages that are to be viewed in many browser involve numerous compromises, tradeoffs, and bug work-arounds. The typical approach, including ours, is that the pages should look correctly in new browsers, and should have acceptable appearance in old browsers. Regrettably, we may not be able to accommodate some uncommon browsers. TestingMost of the compatibility testing is done on: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.50 on IBM PC Win 95 Let us know about problemsIf you encounter a browser problem, please let us know. We will try to fix it. In doing so, we may request that you help us in some of the testing related to your problem. To report a problem please send an e-mail message to: Ottoson Middle School Webmaster KNOWN PROBLEMSKnown problems represent browser incompatibility issues that are either minor, or too difficult to solve, have not yet bee addressed. Old computersOld computers may mrocess JAVA scripts slowly, so pages take a long time to display. Netscape 4.xProcessing of JAVA script in Netscape 4.x is slow, so pages take a long time to display. Redisplaying of a page after the window size has been changed is also slow. Internet Explorer runs a lot faster on the same computer. Menus at the top may get stuck in the down position. To restore, bring mouse pointer to any other menu button, then slide to the side from the menu buttons. Formatting in table-of-content sections is not interpreted. The links are still there, but the font is the default font for ordinary text. When re-sizing text size, or window, the browser may not re-process page header, so either the page remains blank or all formatting disappears. To restore the page, press the Reload button. In text boxes, the browser may incorrectly calculate the size of the boxes, so they end up too small or too large, either horizontally, or vertically, or both. The browser does not display a brown border around the breadcrumbs string (the dark gray bar with the Site Map button on the right). Extra spaces are inserted above or below the headings. The browser does not word-wrap links and does not provide a horizontal scroll bar for links that extend beyond the end of the window. Also does not word-wrap links around pictures, so portions of links may hide behind pictures. Paragraphs are not justified on some pages. The browser often miscalculates the position of the right margin. This actually is caused by miscalculations of the sizes of objects. The horizontal lines between sections are gray instead of brown, and shorter than full length. On home page, the following feature does not work. When the mouse pointer is moved onto the Announcements bar, its color is suppose to change. Clicking anywhere on the bar is suppose to open the Announcements page. However, clicking on the word Announcements itself does work. Netscape 7.0When font size is changed, the change also affects the font size of the menu buttons. This is desirable. Unfortunately, the size of the buttons is not changed right away, so the text may not fit within the buttons. To re-size the menu button, press the Reload button, or hit the F5 key. The "Page loading ... please wait" is never displayed. The horizontal lines between sections are gray instead of brown. Internet Explorer 5.0Horizontal scroll bar appears on all the pages, even when it's not needed. This is caused by a bug in the browser that incorrectly interprets absolute positioning in an in-line style statement of a <div> tag (that displays the "Page loading ... please wait" prompt). This bug is fixed in Internet Explorer 5.5 and subsequent revisions. |
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This page was last updated on Sunday, May 04, 2003 |