[42Olds]

OK, hopefully this is the right list for this - if not please direct me in the right direction.

First, let me mention that I am not a Mac user - this is a problem a friend who does use a Mac is having with my web page. So, I'm straying into uncharted territory for me...<G>

I have a web page <http://www.splinterscraftworks.us/> with a 5 button menu that should be lined up across the top of the page, each button using only the width needed for the text. In all but one browser and OS it works just fine - but in the one setup the buttons are each 100% of the width of the page and the buttons are stacked vertically down into the content region.

This is very frustrating, especially since I don't have a Mac and must get a friend in Europe to check on his machines at work.

I suspect that it has something to do with the width: auto; - but this works in all other versions of IE (including on other Macs!), so why just this one?

The platform in question is:
IE 5..2 for Macintosh
Power Mac G4
MacOS 10.4.3

The HTML:
<div id="head">
<p class="button_menu"><a href="index.html">Home</a></p>
<p class="button_menu"><a href="Splinters_info_menu.html">About</a></p>
<p class="button_menu"><a href="Splinters_pen_menu.html">Pens</a></p>
<p class="button_menu"><a href="Splinters_combined_menu.html">Home & Office</a></p>
<p class="button_menu"><a href="Splinters_custom_menu.html">Custom</a></p>
</div>

The CSS:
.button_menu {
min-width: 5%;
font-weight: bold;
text-align: center;
margin-bottom: 3px;
margin-top: 3px;
padding: 2px;
border:3px solid snow;
float: left;
}
* html .button_menu {
width: auto;
}

.button_menu a {
padding: 4px;
text-decoration: none;
display: block;
color: #224059;
background-color: #b5c9e2;
border-top: 2px #cce3ff solid;
border-left: 2px #cce3ff solid;
border-bottom: 2px #31557f solid;
border-right: 2px #31557f solid;
}

.button_menu a:hover {
background-color: #99aabf;
border-top: 2px #31557f solid;
border-left: 2px #31557f solid;
border-bottom: 2px #cce3ff solid;
border-right: 2px #cce3ff solid;
}
************

I should add that I tried it using a list - same thing, plus some other problems...

So, if any kind soul can find a reason - or even a clue - for this happening on just this one set-up, I would really appreaciate it.

Thanks,

Stephen

[CharlesS]

The problem is that your friend is using Internet Explorer. IE on the Mac really sucks and is prone to really weird and unpredictable behavior. Tell your friend to use a proper Mac web browser, such as Safari, Firefox, Camino, Shiira, or OmniWeb. I just tried your site with Safari and it appears to look okay.

[wataru]

First of all, there is a Web Developer forum here that would have been more appropriate for this topic.

Second, IE for Mac has been officially discontinued. Don't bother testing with it.

[mduser63]

It's good that you're going out of your way to test your website for compatibility with many browsers, but seriously, the only thing worse than IE for Mac as far as standards compliance is IE for Windows, and as long as you test with Safari, Firefox and Opera on the Mac, you'll cover the vast majority of Mac users. IE stopped receiving updates 2+ years ago, and will be removed from MS's website at the end of January. Most of the other popular Mac browsers use the same rendering engines as Safari (WebKit) and Firefox (Gecko), so you should be fine if you test with those.

If it helps you any, I'll mention that the site does what you describe (100% button width, stacked and covering content) on IE 5.2.3 on OS X 10.4.3 for me too. Works fine in Safari and Camino.

[42Olds]

OK, sorry about posting on the wrong list - I wasn't sure which one was the right one. Thanks for the heads up.

And thanks for the advice on the IE on Mac - I'll pass this along to my friend. I imagine he'll be somewhat less than thrilled, but sometimes even academics must face reality <g>

Stephen

[torifile]

Why is he even using IE for Mac? Does that even come installed anymore?

[42Olds]

Originally Posted by torifile

Why is he even using IE for Mac? Does that even come installed anymore?

The only thing I know is that this is at a University in Belgian, and it may be budget restraints. Or, as happens at times, the user is just too stubborn to change. Sometimes academics take the Ivory Tower just a bit too seriously...<g>

[torifile]

Originally Posted by 42Olds

The only thing I know is that this is at a University in Belgian, and it may be budget restraints. Or, as happens at times, the user is just too stubborn to change. Sometimes academics take the Ivory Tower just a bit too seriously...<g>

Budget? Safari comes installed for free and all the other browsers available are free in some form. I mean he's got 10.4.3 already. Sheesh. He needs to get with the times...

[Mastrap]

He's an academic. From my experience many of them don't like change. I know a guy who worked as a Mac tech at a research facility - he was supporting SE 30s because the users refused to upgrade.