[lucidcreations]

Just given up on a certain page using complete CSS I just had to revert back to a table as the content is from a feed and I just cant determin the length of the text and make the CSS look bang on every time in both main browsers. I know I could probbaly get it sorted if i worked at it but i just dont have the time now.

Anyway...I have just noticed that randomly a couple of different elements on different peoples machine with the same OS and browser will be out of place but you refresh the page and it all lines back up again......why!!!!!????? I love CSS but all this cross browser stuff and funny little quirks do my head it!

[andycogbill]

as they say in France: "c'est la vie." just work with it. I find little hacks in CSS all the time. not to say that my site works well cross-browser. i mean, have you *seen* my site on a macIE? I just think about my viewers; who they are, why they're at my site, and what they're probably running.

but CSS hacks are cool - i just learned a great one where, to center stuff on a page, you can say width/height: 50%, then use negative margins to place it accordingly. i think someone linked a page earlier with this on it, and i love it.

my 2 cents.

[lucidcreations]

oh yeah never thought of that for centering

[smallbeer]

IE/Mac will hate you for it.

[Brown]

you should hear what ie/mac says about you behind your back

[smallbeer]

Originally Posted by Brown

you should hear what ie/mac says about you behind your back

the bitch.

[Bill Posters]

The MSIE5/Mac problem with the negative margin 'kludge' stems from its mis-handling of the html, body { height: 100%; } under full DTDs.

After a little testing it turned out that the actual problem was that MSIE5/Mac took the value of height: 100%; from the actual width of the viewport.
This means that the negative margin kludge (used w/ a full DTD) will only appear to work perfectly if the viewport is square.

The only other time it will work perfectly is when on a partial Transitional DTD is used - something that, for many people, is no longer an option they wish to consider (and rightly so).

If dead-centering under an XHTL Strict DTD was critical, then I might consider using a containing table and slipping a cheeky height="100%" into the <table> tag.
It would invalidate the markup on that one count, but for me, the most important thing about an XHTML Strict environment is that it ensures (as best we can) consistent presentation x-browser/x-platform.
(The accessibility benefits are, from my perspective, a brilliantly fortunate side-effect of using an XHTML Strict environment. After all, I'm still a visual designer first and foremost.)


As much as MSIE5/Mac once used to be the most standards-compliant browser on the market, the things that it does get wrong can be a real pain in the chav.

[urbanvictim]

IE5/Mac is crap. IE5/Win is great. Sigh. Well, what with Safari, we should be able to look forward to a better rendering engine on the Mac platform... And to forget about designing for a crap browser. :\

[Stickman]

Too right. After extensive testing, I am liking Safari.

[Stickman]

...still can't figure out caches on the mac though. Memories like elephants.

[Bill Posters]

Stumbled over this t'other day.
Cache Out X c/o VersionTracker.

Might be just what's needed to lobotomise Safari's over-keen cache (until it's sorted properly).

[Stickman]

Thanks.

Just downloaded it - seems to work well.