browser options effecting view

[akaTigger]

I have navigation text links within color bars... I was at the client's office, using his computer, and the text came up running outside the bars. My HTML was correct... Upon further investigation I found he had the browser (IE) option set to "largest" for text size. Is there anyway to circumvent this?

TIA

[pat_s]

I think there is with CSS, but are you sure you'd want to do this? It's a good option for people with bad eyesight. Even with just normal visual impairment that comes with middle age, it's not always easy to find glasses that correct well for everything including computers. It's probably better to just design a page that bend with user selected options.

[akaTigger]

Problem is it's white text within a colored bar that is extending into the white space below...

[pat_s]

That does sound like a big problem that needs to be solved. Do you have a URL? I'm not saying I could solve it, but someone here probably could help.

[mivox]

Generally, if I *really* want my navigation links to stay the same size and stay in the same place no matter what, I make small text graphics with transparent backgrounds for 'buttons'. Then I make sure to include alt text for folks with gfx turned off, and put some duplicate text links running across the bottom of the page (or at least a link to a text-only site map page).

[theperlyking]

Just to add my comment, I occasionally surf with larger than normal fonts so its not that uncommon.
My opinion is rather than trying to force viewers to see your desired size of font make the site more forgiving of different sized text.
I remember once asking a similar question (in a different forum) and got flamed until there was nothing left but ashes. The guy who did the flaming asked me a pointed question - who am I designing the site for, my own ego or the visitors?. I was pretty annoyed but he was right..

Sorry for ranting :)

[etLux]

I gotta go with perly on this one...

Containing the general layout so it stays on the screen is perhaps desirable (fixed-width tables, say).

But using css to abnegate the ability of the visitor to change text size is a disservice to the visually impaired (not to mention us old geezers who just need to bump the text size sometimes when we forget our reading glasses... lol).

Figure, too, that those who do run upscale on the text are pretty much used to the layout of a great many sites being less than lovely.

[pat_s]

I like the attitude here.:) Still, it should be doable, depending on how the "color bars" are created. If it's colors in a table, the table should be able to expand with the text size.

[tedster]

Another point -- some people with impaired vision change the system font, not the browser font option. As far as I know, there's nothing you can do to override that.

Here's another thread on the topic of font size that may help you:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[theperlyking]

Tell me about it, where I work there are thousands of PC's all set up with large fonts, in fact the user couldnt change it even if they wanted - it seems small fonts aren't installed and they dont have sufficient priviledges (they run NT) to install them even if they could get hold of them!

The fonts make them look like they are running at 800x600 instead of 1024x768 which is the actual resolution.

[akaTigger]

>> Do you have a URL?

[cfcintl.com...]

It's a 3-frame format. (I know, I know... I'm changing it to tables.)

Changing the page layout is not an option at this point. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

[theperlyking]

The solution is to be creative with tables, make the cell(s) the text is in to be the solid colour and have another vertical cell next to it with a thin graphic (however few pixels that takes) that is your drop shadow. That way the text will always be in the colour.

Hope i'm making sense :)

[akaTigger]

I got it. Great suggestion, theperlyking. Thanks.

[Robert Charlton]

Your white (FFFFFF) link text might be viewed by the engines as hidden text. In both nav bars you use gifs for background, but don't specify background color. Engines might see this as the default white background, assume you're hiding text, and ban you for this. I'd recommend adding a bgcolor attribute to your body tag, with a color spec similar to your gif color.

[knighty]

Erm....

CSS cant control text size if the user changes the text size through the browser.

I have a similar problem with hyperlinks set to 10 pixels they will still increase and knock the rest of the page out no matter how i set the CSS.

At the end of the day the user can overide all kinds of settings ;)