Japanese Windows Explorer - Help...!

Content displaying differently in Japanese version of Explorer

[zackattack]

I have started constructing a site in English with a copy in Japanese - My client is Japanese and wants the site to work in both Japan and the UK

On testing the first few pages, it all looked fine in Win Explorer (6) ,FireFox Opera.
When I got the client to check the pages the looked terrible. Client was using Japanese XP with Japanese version of windows explorer....

Anyone come across this before and/or have any suggestions?

ZA

[tedster]

the pages the looked terrible

Looked terrible in what way? Can you see what parts of the html or css are being rendered differently?

[zackattack]

Hi thanks for the reply

I have used a combination of HTML layout with tables and an external style sheet for additional font and artwork layout. Points 1) and 2) detailed below..

1)
Below is the style sheet code for the buttons. in UK browser it is all working to plan, in Japenese browser the text isnt as alinged using padding (as detailed below in this code) and the background image is showing the center of the image.. (the position top and bottom is not working) There is an English version and a Japanese version of the page - the English version is bad the Japanese version is worse (the spacing and amounnt of background image showing is more extreme)

/* this is the table the buttons are in */
#topnav {
float: right;
font-size: 65%;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 500%;
}
/* this defines the display area which shows the image of the button in the background */
#topnav a {
text-decoration: none;
display: block;
height: 53px;
width: 54px;
background-image: url("images-design/button.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: top;
text-align: center;
}
#topnav a:link, #topnav a:visited {
color: #666;
}
#topnav a:hover {
color: #fff;
background-image: url("images-design/button.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: bottom;
}
/* these divs are assigned to the individual cells in the table to position the buttons in a stepped shape to follow a curve design on the website background */
#topone {
padding-left: 0px;
}
#toptwo {
padding-left: 40px;
}
#topthree {
padding-left: 85px;
}
#topfour {
padding-left: 125px;
}
#homephoto {
padding: 0 0 0 10px;
}

2)
I have text and pictures on home page - the spacing betweeen the logo at the top, paragraph below this and a table with text and icons below this all looks fine in UK browser but on Japanese browser the vertical spacing is much greater when viewing the UK page, when vewing the Japanese page its (again) even worse

I can send screen shots if needed... or even a link to the test page if needed..

I am making the transition from layout with tables to layout with style sheets at the moment, but obviously Ineed to make sure these pages work on as many language version browsers as possible.

I suspect this might be something to do with font default valuses on a japanese version of explorer becaue the japanese characters are larger than UK text...

any help is really appreciated..

ZA

[bill]

Really can't tell from your description exactly what's wrong. Maybe you should alter the font size for the Japanese CSS. Japanese characters do seem to render a bit larger than English by default on Japanese systems.

[zackattack]

Thanks for your reply

The issue is that the browser - Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6 is a Japanese version (as is the operating system)

When the site's English AND Japanese pages are viewed on this Japanese windows internet explorer version 6 the line spacing is much greater (the UK page is bad the Japanese page worse) AS compared to viewing the same pages on my (English) Internet Explorer version 6 where both the UK page and the Japanese page look 100% OK

I hope this explains it... any help is appreciated

ZA

[zackattack]

For anyone interested.. I found the answer

I might look like a complete wally, but better to share the information

After this being tested on other Japanese Browsers it turns out the client had customised thier screen resolution (PC) some time ago using the advanced settings in Properties > Settings from their desktop

so the issue is resolved, however may throw up an interesting point which is detecting screen resolution sizes.. dont know if this is possible or not?

anyway there you go... sorry to have taken up anyones time needlessly

ZA