Can't edit msg with Netscape

[Peter Harbeson]

The way Netscape lays out pages can differ greatly from Explorer, 
particularly if you're using Cascading Style Sheets or complex tables. 
The real problem is probably in the Netscape browser, which does not 
properly conform to W3C standards. (IE is not 100% compliant, but it's 
much better). It's also possible that the problem is in your tagging; 
IE is much more forgiving of problems in tagging, particularly in 
tables. 

Some possible solutions:
 - simplify the tables in your template
 - if you're using CSS to position page elements, consider creating two 
separate style sheets, one that works in IE and one that works in 
Netscape. Then you'll need to detect the user's browser and swap in the 
correct CSS. (I haven't implemented this yet in Frontier, but it's easy 
with PHP, so I think it will be doable.) 
 - recommend that users use Internet Explorer (I don't like this 
solution, but it can be at least a stopgap)

FWIW, I've found that some of the templates distributed with Manila do 
not render properly in Netscape. Even some of the pages at Userland.com 
aren't right. 

Additional bad news: 
 1. There are more browsers than just IE and Netscape. Opera and iCab 
are pretty standards-compliant. I just started testing with Mozilla and 
Konqueror, so I'm not sure. The W3C has a browser called Amaya as well, 
but I believe it's more intended for testing than use.
 2. Pages also render differently on the Windows and Mac versions of 
the SAME browser. This is primarily a font size problem, but there are 
some other subtle differences.

> A contributing editor who uses Netscape alerted me to a new problem. 
The 
> following problem appears only when editing with the Netscape 
browser. 
> (Internet Explorer is fine.)
> 
> The "Post Changes" button overlays the text box, as do ALL the 
metadata 
> fields. And even if I could see through the button to edit, it is 
inactive.
> 
> I reproduced this problem from my machine - Windows 98, 800x600 
resolution, 
> Netscape Communicator 4.61.
> 
> This problem has appeared since we started using metadata now on our 
staff 
> site. (Metadata works fine, btw.) Our short term solution to the 
Netscape 
> problem is to use IE instead. But with browser-based editing, it's 
best if 
> folks can use either Netscape or IE. Also, this makes me wary about 
using 
> metadata on other manila sites I manage.
> 
> Hope you have a lead on this.
> -Ceelee
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Peter J. Harbeson
Infoliage Communication
http://www.infoliage.com