changing text size in browsers

[Jud McCranie]

I created some HTML files for my webpage using Microsoft Word. If I
go to my webpage in Mozilla Firefox, changing the text size works. If
I go to it in Internet Explorer, the "text size" doesn't change the
size. Is there something I need to do so that IE users can change the
text size?

 

[dorayme]

I created some HTML files for my webpage using Microsoft Word. If I
go to my webpage in Mozilla Firefox, changing the text size works. If
I go to it in Internet Explorer, the "text size" doesn't change the
size. Is there something I need to do so that IE users can change the
text size?

Go through the source code and change all font-size specs from px
to %. If it is very obviously small as displayed in IE, and you
want the relationship between this and the bigger normal text of
the body of the webpage to be preserved, try to see what the
equivalent is by experimenting with %.

(You won't one day when you have more time be wanting to be using
this software to create what is almost invariably awful mark up
and css... but this is btw. I give quick and dirty advice and
that is why I am shunned and laughed at by all...)

 

[Sid Ismail]

On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 20:38:06 -0400, Jud McCranie

: I created some HTML files for my webpage using Microsoft Word. If I
: go to my webpage in Mozilla Firefox, changing the text size works. If
: I go to it in Internet Explorer, the "text size" doesn't change the
: size. Is there something I need to do so that IE users can change the
: text size?


Microsoft Word is what you use to tell your mother-in-law that you'll
be away if she wants to visit. It is NOT a webpage editor. Never
was, never will be.

Get a decent one - Textpad, EditPad (even Lite), etc etc

Worse than Word is Frontpage and xls to html, btw.

Sid

 

[Ed Mullen]

I created some HTML files for my webpage using Microsoft Word. If I
go to my webpage in Mozilla Firefox, changing the text size works. If
I go to it in Internet Explorer, the "text size" doesn't change the
size. Is there something I need to do so that IE users can change the
text size?

FYI ...

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5197013.html#

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net
http://mozilla.edmullen.net
http://abington.edmullen.net
If it's a hobby to us and a job to you, why are you doing such a shoddy
job? - Linus Torvalds to Microsoft

 

[Jud McCranie]

Get a decent one - Textpad, EditPad (even Lite), etc etc

I use editpad pro 6.0 for text. But I know very little HTML.

 

[Jud McCranie]

Go through the source code and change all font-size specs from px
to %. If it is very obviously small as displayed in IE, and you
want the relationship between this and the bigger normal text of
the body of the webpage to be preserved, try to see what the
equivalent is by experimenting with %.

Thanks, that worked. Just guessing, I replaced:
10pt -> 40%
12pt -> 50%
16pt -> 80%
18pt -> 90%

The 40% is way too small. I can experiment around with it a little,
but are there any guidelines for the percentages? Is > 100% allowed?

 

[Jud McCranie]

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5197013.html#

Thank you, I just downloaded that program, and I will try it.

 

[Jud McCranie]

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5197013.html#

You have to have Microsoft Office 2000 to install that program, and I
only have Word. :-{

 

[Steven Saunderson]

Thanks, that worked. Just guessing, I replaced:
10pt -> 40%
12pt -> 50%
16pt -> 80%
18pt -> 90%

The 40% is way too small. I can experiment around with it a little,
but are there any guidelines for the percentages? Is > 100% allowed?

Sure, I use 100% for normal text and 200% for <H1> and in between for
smaller headings. So everything is 100% or more. If I wanted tiny text
I would try 70% or thereabouts.

 

[Jud McCranie]

You have to have Microsoft Office 2000 to install that program, and I
only have Word. :-{

This web site says that the filter is built into newer versions, and
it is:
http://www.csus.edu/atcs/quikrefsite/PDFs/word_to_html_qr_2up.pdf

 

[ironcorona]

Thanks, that worked. Just guessing, I replaced:
10pt -> 40%
12pt -> 50%
16pt -> 80%
18pt -> 90%

The 40% is way too small. I can experiment around with it a little,
but are there any guidelines for the percentages?

If you're using percentages this way just set all font to 100%.
Something like

body {font-size:100%;}

This way the user gets to choose the size of the font.

What you see as 40% others might not see. I think the default of Serif
fonts in many browsers is 16pt but this can be changed and is subject to
personal preference. Don't equate pt sizes to % because you can't know
what it's going to be a percent of, in terms of the user.

Is > 100% allowed?

yes

 

[Sid Ismail]

On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 22:35:17 -0400, Jud McCranie

: On Sun, 04 Jun 2006 04:21:19 +0200, Sid Ismail <[email protected]>
: wrote:
:
: >Get a decent one - Textpad, EditPad (even Lite), etc etc
:
: I use editpad pro 6.0 for text. But I know very little HTML.


Funny enough, I use EditPad Pro also. Together with Coffee Cup 5.0
and Dreamweaver, Top Style 3, I am pretty contented.

Here you are:
http://www.tizag.com/beginnerT/
http://www.bravenet.com/resourcecenter/tutorials/html/index.php
http://www.w3schools.com/

Regards

Sid

 

[Sid Ismail]

On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 22:51:21 -0400, Jud McCranie

: Thanks, that worked. Just guessing, I replaced:
: 10pt -> 40%
: 12pt -> 50%
: 16pt -> 80%
: 18pt -> 90%
:
: The 40% is way too small. I can experiment around with it a little,
: but are there any guidelines for the percentages? Is > 100% allowed?


Have a look at: http://www.elsid.co.za/download/css_fontsizes.htm

Sid

 

[Sid Ismail]

: What you see as 40% others might not see. I think the default of Serif
: fonts in many browsers is 16pt


depending on resolution... On a 640x480, it is different to 1024x...

Sid

 

[Alan J. Flavell]

Thanks, that worked. Just guessing, I replaced:
10pt -> 40%
12pt -> 50%
16pt -> 80%
18pt -> 90%

The 40% is way too small.

Certainly is. Some would rate 65% as marginal, and only to be used
for stuff that /has/ to be there but few will want to read ("the small
print").

But stop thinking of specific physical sizes as your base, and
percentages as some kind of poor substitute which you're trying to
equivalence by experiment.

On the web, percentages (or em units, which are effectively
equivalent) *are* your base, and physical sizes are only what comes
out at the end, after /your/ size proposals have been through the
/reader's/ configuration settings (of default font and size, of text
zoom, of enforced minimum font setting, and so on). Any other attempt
is madness. The absolute size units such as pt have their reason for
existing, e.g for printing; but for web display in arbitrary viewing
situations unknown to the author, they are desperately
counter-productive - and would continue to be so even if they were
implemented to specification, which they generally are not.

I can experiment around with it a little,

Yes, but you're only one reader (as is each of us, of course). You
can't predict what other readers want or need. So personal
experiments are inevitably flawed. But two-fifths of the reader's
chosen (linear) size for normal text (100% or 1.0em) is certainly too
small.

but are there any guidelines for the percentages? Is > 100%
allowed?

Is there online documentation for CSS? Is there a sample stylesheet
written by W3C specialists, to peruse as some kind of starting
point?

Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine working with something new on
the basis of mere experiments - I'd always want to know where to find
the reference documentation, and some respectable samples or tutorials
to get started.

Oh, the answers to the two questions are "yes" and "yes". The nearest
we've got to a currently appropriate reference for CSS is the 2.1
"working draft": http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/ , and it has an appendix
with a suggested default stylesheet for HTML, which you might consider
at least as a sample of CSS in practice, even if you don't want to
follow that style: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/sample.html

 

[Jud McCranie]

But stop thinking of specific physical sizes as your base, and
percentages as some kind of poor substitute which you're trying to
equivalence by experiment.

You're right, I had used those font sizes in my original document, and
those are the substitutions I made.

 

[Jud McCranie]

: >Get a decent one - Textpad, EditPad (even Lite), etc etc
:
: I use editpad pro 6.0 for text. But I know very little HTML.


Funny enough, I use EditPad Pro also. Together with Coffee Cup 5.0
and Dreamweaver, Top Style 3, I am pretty contented.

Maybe I need to look at those too. I downloaded TextPad last night,
and it seems VERY similar to EditPad. (I was a beta tester for
EditPad 6, BTW).

 

[dorayme]

Thanks, that worked. Just guessing, I replaced:
10pt -> 40%
12pt -> 50%
16pt -> 80%
18pt -> 90%

The 40% is way too small. I can experiment around with it a little,
but are there any guidelines for the percentages? Is > 100% allowed?

Yes and yes... There is the standard orthodox line that you will
have read from Flavell on the first question. It is perfectly
right. Study it and then in a real situation that calls for it,
set the base to be less than 100% anyway... But try as hard as
you can to avoid this for the reasons he gives. You won't
understand what I am saying until you have more experience and
deal with many real clients in the commercial world, so my point
for now to you is, it is about as sinful as a Catholic couple
using morning after pill.

 

[Jud McCranie]

Get a decent one - Textpad, EditPad (even Lite), etc etc

I'm a user of EditPad pro and I tried Textpad. Both of those are good
for writing HTML code, but not for creating an HTML document. Borland
Developer Studio 2006 has a WYSIWYG HTML interface, but (1) it doesn't
have spell checking, and (2) it can't read in a lot of already-created
HTML documents. Word (with the save filtered) is good, except that I
have to manually change font-size to percentages. The save filtered
option strips out at least 5KB of unneeded stuff.