Refining an Omnislide installation

[wanapitei]

I'm using Omnislide (www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/omnislide/index.htm) as my main navbar. Works very well indeed. Here's the ideal (http://www.morleychalmers.com/MostlyTheravada/dharmaTalks/1.html) which happens to be under Safari 3.0.4 on a Mac. However, here's what's happening on a PC (http://www.morleychalmers.com/MostlyTheravada/media/images/Explorer1.gif) running Explorer 6.0.2, 1280x1024 resolution under XP Home, Service Pack 2.

Explorer6 has a second issue. Here's what happens when the user scrolls to the bottom of the long text and then jumps back again to the top (http://www.morleychalmers.com/MostlyTheravada/media/images/Explorer2.gif) using Explorer6. The menus reappear if the user refreshes the screen. Missing menus doesn't happen with Firefox, Mac or PC, also doesn't happen with Safari.

Firefox on a PC (http://www.morleychalmers.com/MostlyTheravada/media/images/Firefox1.gif) is virtually identical to Firefox on a Mac (http://www.morleychalmers.com/MostlyTheravada/media/images/FireFoxMacTalk1.gif), both running version 2.00.12. The Omnislide menus are a pixel or two smaller than the Home and Dana gifs right and left compared with the Safari rendering.

Can anything be done about the two major problems when the user is running Explorer6?

Appreciated,

[jscheuer1]

Well, even in Safari, the menu wraps in an unsightly manner if the window is too narrow. The main problem in IE 6 is that you have your text size (in its view menu) set too large, it should be medium. However, this brings up another, bigger issue. The menu's positioning should all be set in a relative way, like - probably ems, so that changes in text size will not mess up the horizontal alignment. Or, everything should be set only in pixels. The script will not (if I am remembering correctly) allow everything to be pixels, as it converts these to ems in many places, though. But this could be changed if using ems to position the menu won't work.

I'm sure that there are ways to fix the disappearing menu in IE 6, but offhand I'm not certain how. I'll try to keep this in mind for when I have more time to look into it. It looks fine in IE 7 though, just off by a pixel.

[wanapitei]

Well, even in Safari, the menu wraps in an unsightly manner if the window is too narrow.

And in FireFox. Because these are gifs, not rectangular images created in JavaScript, I suspect this will be the case with all browsers, all platforms. For now I propose to live with this particular weakness, just to get this website launched, get some feedback and perhaps some volunteer help from those with more experience in website issues than I.


The main problem in IE 6 is that you have your text size (in its view menu) set too large, it should be medium. However, this brings up another, bigger issue. The menu's positioning should all be set in a relative way, like - probably ems, so that changes in text size will not mess up the horizontal alignment. Or, everything should be set only in pixels. The script will not (if I am remembering correctly) allow everything to be pixels, as it converts these to ems in many places, though. But this could be changed if using ems to position the menu won't work.

I'm sure that there are ways to fix the disappearing menu in IE 6, but offhand I'm not certain how. I'll try to keep this in mind for when I have more time to look into it. It looks fine in IE 7 though, just off by a pixel.

By "ems" are you meaning picas and points? I know picas and points well from conventional print production. Can you point me towards some examples of relative sizing and positioning syntax using ems? Will be digging into this code on Wednesday.

Appreciated and kind regards,