Elliot Lewis said:
Beauregard T. Shagnasty said:
Elliot Lewis pounced upon this pigeonhole and pronounced:
[top posting corrected]
In my browser they line up, but look different in I.E. 5 and 5-5
and
Surely all your visitors cannot have the exact same window sizes, default
font sizes, screen resolution, maximized or otherwise browser.
[top posting corrected AGAIN]
The very first thing one must do to open a straw man argument
(
http://www.google.com.au/search?q="straw+man+argument" )
is to call ones opponent to order and to suggest that they may be of less
than acceptable intelligence. This is mandatory. It sets the tone for the
argument and casts the first seed of doubt into the mind of the casual
observer.
I do expect a table with width 100 to be the same relational size across all
versions of the same browser.
One then provides some irrelevant information or opinion which everybody
must agree with, since it is usually quite true and accurate. This part of
ones argument builds on the seed of doubt instilled earlier on and lulls the
casual observer into a sense of security, leading said observer to believe
that one actually does have something useful and meaningful to say.
Therefore I expect a text field of 18 to be the same width as a textarea of
18.
After this one presents the meat of the straw man argument. One rides on the
sense of security and camaraderie one has established with the casual
observer and one sneakily flows into the argument the assertion that what
one "wants", *must* be so. It is crucial that one makes this part of the
argument unambiguous and not open to any sort of questioning or evaluation b
y the casual observer. It MUST be so. I EXPECT this to happen. This IS the
way it is.
Obviously you don't care about professional looking work.
One closes out ones argument with a parting shot at ones opponent, perhaps
questioning their professional qualifications to have any sort of opinion at
all on the matter to hand. Ones opponents reputation and even intelligence
is now under serious evaluation and any argument ones opponent may have made
is in tatters and must be seriously suspect.
</rant>
The subject of specifying the width of input elements in a consistent manner
across different browsers is raised in this newsgroup and in most of the
others at least once a month.
The general consensus is that no matter what is suggested it will never,
ever, look the same on all browsers. Some of them are wildly different.
This consensus is largely made by people who have been intimately involved
with HTML and the web in general for many years, many of them since its
inception.
Further consensus is that it does not matter. If a particular browser
renders the elements at a different width then it will have done so for all
pages the user of that browser has ever viewed. That user will be used to
seeing them like that.
The generally accepted rule is that there is no future in trying to make the
input elements pixel perfect in all browsers and that such time spent trying
to do so would be far better expended on refining the content of the page.
Cheers
Richard.