[thelist] resizing in browswer

Paola Kathuria paola at limitless.co.uk
Tue Mar 20 09:48:01 CST 2001


jami mccabe wrote:
> I'm working in FP2000 and want to know how to make my page resize when the
> browser resizes.

I'm suggesting two approaches here, only the first of which
(I believe) is covered by the aforementioned evolt article.
I end with a related question of my own on CSS.

1)
If you want copy to rewrap to the available width of the browser
then either a) don't put content in tables or b) set the enclosing
table widths to 100% and the cell (td width) containing the copy
to 100%.

Never set an absolute width to the main table of a page (contents
will never wrap).

2)
My preferred approach is to set a maximum width for copy still
allowing it to rewrap when the browser is made narrower.  Put
your copy in a table but *don't* specify a width for the table.
Instead specify your maximum width for the cell containing the
copy (this should be an absolute value, not a percentage).  I
tend to use <td width="450"> (with default font face/size).

Note: when using this second method, don't include <hr> in the
copy cell, as this will force the cell to the maximum set width
(in Netscape 4.7).  <hr> set to a percentage gets around this
problem, though (e.g., <hr width="75%">

To see an example of this approach in action, have a look at 
http://www.biwhm.org.uk/2000-view.htm


However, unless FP2000 is a big improvement on previous
versions of FrontPage, it won't be easy to do either of these
with FP as it tends to rewrite table and cell widths according
to its own (wrong) second-guessing.

And now a related question for the CSS experts.  I would love to
stop relying on tables for single-column copy but want to
implement this idea of a maximum line length for copy which will
rewrap if the browser's narrower.  I have experimented by setting
width for paragraphs to 450px and also have used em (as the max
line length then changes with the current font size, which is
ideal).

However, Netscape 4.7 on a PC doesn't properly print out
paragraphs whose width is set in CSS (even with div) - it just
prints 1-3 words per line.  Is there a reliable way of setting a
max paragraph width in CSS for all browsers that recognise CSS?


Paola




More information about the thelist mailing list