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How can I specify certain areas to show a fixed text size? I am using Front Page XP, thanks in advance.
You should set your font sizes in pixels (px) if you don't want them re-sizable in IE. That's not always considered the best way to set your fonts in terms of accessibility for web-page design, but it should work the way you asked.
Common "newbie" questions in the newsgroups devoted to Web authoring are those that begin "How do I force the user's browser to...".
They all display a lack of understanding of how the Web works. There is no way an author can force anything on the user. Various HTML constructs can suggest certain actions on the part of the browser, but they can't force them.
You can suggest font settings in various ways, including stylesheets and various (deprecated in HTML 4.0) presentational tags and attributes. On some browsers, some of these settings "force" your desired settings regardless of the user's configuration. This is a bad idea, because it can result in pages that are unreadable to users with special needs. For instance, those with poor eyesight might want larger fonts, and those with color-blindness might need to set color combinations that are readable to them, even if they look odd to others. The more the site author does to try to defeat such things, and the more the browser cooperates, the less readable the site will be to such users.
More about "How Do I Force...? [webtips.dantobias.com]" requests.
One of my sites is old and static. It was once HTML coded with fixed font size. Now I would be very happy indeed to know how I can stop forcing on my visitors such a fundamental thing as the text size I once selected.
If it's so difficult to force anything on users, then there must certainly be some simple solution to my problem? Please tell me. I'm all ears. But regrettably I have limited time to spend on rewriting this site.
BTW, please don't tell me FF will override my text size settings, because more than 90% of my visitors use IE, and I don't want to force FF on them.
coded with fixed font size.
You can change this mark-up, geekay. How you change it all depends on where and how the font sizes are declared.
An extended search and replace function should make quick work of it, if the declarations are all inline. Just declare your sizes as ems, and whatever the user has set for their default font size will be 1 em.
So you still get to say how the size of one font COMPARES to another font on your page (.8em or 1.1em, etc.) But the absolute size is up to the user's setting.
Now I would be very happy indeed to know how I can stop forcing on my visitors such a fundamental thing as the text size I once selected.
Simply use elegent proportions instead of absolute text sizes.
body {font-size: 1em;}
p {font-size: 80%;}
...
h5 {font-size: 110%;}
h4 {font-size: 120%;}
h3 {font-size: 130%;}
h2 {font-size: 140%;}
h1 {font-size: 150%;}
...
#copywrite {font-size: 60%;}
...
or
body {font-size: 1em;}
p {font-size: .8em;}
...
h5 {font-size: 1.1em;}
h4 {font-size: 1.2em;}
h3 {font-size: 1.3em;}
h2 {font-size: 1.4em;}
h1 {font-size: 1.5em;}
...
#copywrite {font-size: .6em;}
...
BTW, please don't tell me FF will override my text size settings, because more than 90% of my visitors use IE, and I don't want to force FF on them.
The issue has never been between choosing one brand of browser over another, but to decide if what you have to say on your pages is worth being read by all your visitors. Don't expect everybody to display your text on a 17 inch color monitor only because it's what you own. Web devices come in all sorts : PDA's, cellular phones, text readers for blind people, giant billboards in stadiums, TV's, 13 inches black & white CRT's, 52 inches HD flat screens, ...
By the way, if you design with IE(FrontPage) for IE, it's already a miracle you have 10% of browsers not IE.
But regrettably I have limited time to spend on rewriting this site.
Ask yourself if the content is worth your time in the first place. If you have difficulties finding time for this website, maybe it's because your time would be better invested in another activity, in another message, on another platform...
