[thelist] ACCESSIBILITY: working with nn4.x and everything else (who'd of guessed?)

[Michael Kimsal]

On Tue, 2002-09-03 at 18:42, Chris W. Parker wrote:
> hi.
>
> my problem is a common one i'm sure. in ie6 (i remember this being true
> for 5 and 5.5 also) my text field box is much smaller than in nn4.x even
> though i've specified the same number of character widths. i know this
> is because each browser uses a different font. my question though is,
> how can i best deal with this? should i...
>
> * rely on CSS?
> * make my IE box really short so that when it's viewed in nn4.x it
> doesn't wreck the layout?
> * use some server side script to detect the browser and then write in an
> appropriate value for each?
> * use a client side script to detect the browser and then write in an
> appropriate value for each?
>
> those are the only options i could think of. i'm voting for CSS, but i
> don't see how i can make my IE box big, while my NN box stays small.
>
>

No one answer, because you'll have to decide - I've seen people do
all of the above in different situations.

The problem is not the font specifically, it's how the browser's
approximate the size.  IE (I think) uses the width of the widest
character, and NS uses an average font width to determine
the size.  Maybe it's reversed - I can't remember.  I do know
that I've tested this theory before - putting in 'cols=30'
means that I can type 30 W characters in one browser.  30 W
characters in the other browser would be too wide.

HTH