Pocket PC formatting

[Sothpaw]

this may be the wrong area, so please point me to the correct section if that is the case.

i want my websites to work on Pocket PC's.
well they do work but not anything like a normal desktop browser.
i've searched for instructions online but so far haven't found a site to show me what i want to know.

[Xapti]

I don't know what kind of scrolling mechanisms, standards support, or zoom features the browser has for pocketPC to I'm writing blind.

One thing you should try to avoid is pixel-precise layouts. Everything should flow. If you have a fixed width and height container, when the font size is smaller, there's empty space, and when it's larger, it overflows or gets cut off.

For best compatibility and accessibility, stay with very simple designs as much as possible.

Font-wise, you should use pt/cm/pc and/or ems. They both sort of have their advantages, just stay away from pixels.

[Sothpaw]

so basically what your saying is that as long as the page is designed correctly and simply, it should work just fine on a pocket pc...? looks like i have some work cut out for me. but it will be fun :-)

[lavazza]

I suggest media="handheld" stylesheet will be the way to go

Among the many websites that are out there, few are standards-compliant. Among those few, only a handful sport style sheets adjusted to the needs of handheld devices. Of those which do offer styling for handhelds, not all will fit the smallest, lowest-resolution screens without presenting the user with the ultimate handheld horror: namely, horizontal scrolling

The Opera browser runs on handheld devices of all screen sizes and resolutions, some of them only 120 pixels wide. We work for the company that produces Opera, so we can offer a degree of insight into the functions of Opera for handhelds. In this article, we’ve prepared a set of general suggestions for creating a handheld-friendly style sheet, along with a few Opera-specific pointers that you may find useful...

Stylesheets for handheld devices [css-discuss.incutio.com]

Support for handhelds is going to be a far worse mess than the mess of browser support for computers. Every manufacturer has their own standard, and there is not even consistency from one device to another from any one manufacturer. Here is the information I have found so far, and my feeling about how to proceed:

[edited by: tedster at 11:35 pm (utc) on June 25, 2007]

[Sothpaw]

thanks,
for all of you out there who may use handhelds... does it look like they are the way of the future? or is it just a trend. i don't have one. my boss does and he uses it often with clients to go over our web portfolio. he would use it more if our website were formated better for handhelds. or maybe i should just get the portfolio installed on his handheld.