Website Formatting is all off when viewed on Dell high resolution 17" laptop screen

[BeamGuy]

Hi all,

I'm new to MS publisher 2003, so likely this question has been answered before. I have used publisher to create my website and have
it on my hosting site where it looks fine on all my computers except one. The problem computer is a dell Inspiron 9300 laptop with a
high resolution 1920x1600 17" screen. Because it is such high resolution the Dell guys configure windows in a non-standard way to
make things readable on the screen. Icons and fonts have been enlarged. I don't know all of what they did, since I just took the
defaults as shipped - but they are not windows defaults.

So here is my problem - when I view my webpage with either IE or Firefox the items on the screen are all piled on top of each other.
This is most apparent on the forms page. Other websites manage to display just fine in both browsers. I have played with a number of
settings and not yet found the right one.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks...

 

[DavidF]

Yes, others have reported this problem viewing Publisher pages with a
non-standard resolution. Publisher produces a static page that does not
adapt to variable widths, etc. You could try to change the resolution of
your laptop to the same as the other computers, or perhaps just changing the
text size would help. In IE go to View and adjust text size and see if that
helps.

DavidF

Hi all,

I'm new to MS publisher 2003, so likely this question has been answered

before. I have used publisher to create my website and have

it on my hosting site where it looks fine on all my computers except one.

The problem computer is a dell Inspiron 9300 laptop with a

high resolution 1920x1600 17" screen. Because it is such high resolution

the Dell guys configure windows in a non-standard way to

make things readable on the screen. Icons and fonts have been enlarged. I

don't know all of what they did, since I just took the

defaults as shipped - but they are not windows defaults.

So here is my problem - when I view my webpage with either IE or Firefox

the items on the screen are all piled on top of each other.

This is most apparent on the forms page. Other websites manage to display

just fine in both browsers. I have played with a number of

 

[BeamGuy]

...perhaps just changing the text size would help. In IE go to View and
adjust text size and see if that helps.

Hello David,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question. After a little walking
around the building trying different computers I have found that the biggest
issue is that when the browser resizes objects to fit on the screen it uses
different scaling for different types of objects.

On this computer text is made MUCH bigger, but text boxes are moved not
quite far enough to compensate for the larger text that fills them. So if more
than one text box is on the screen they can end up overlapping.

On this computer form entry boxes also get moved, but much less than the
text boxes do! So the form entry boxes are under the text that describes them.

I have captured some photos - and for the next few days if you want to see
them send me an email at (e-mail address removed) That is a temporary
email address that I will delete next week to avoid spam.

Perhaps there are some buttons I can push to make the browser scale all
the different objects the same. I am afraid that with gas prices what they are
I cannot afford to travel to each and every person's house that might want
to view my pages and change their browser settings - even if I knew what to
change.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[DavidF]

I was reminded this morning after reading an article in the most recent
PCworld mag, that LCDs render pages most accurately when the resolution is
set at the "native" settings. The article also said that this is generally
the highest resolution available. You might try right clicking your
screen/desktop and opening properties, to adjust the resolution, and test
different resolutions to see if that makes any differences. Also as I
indicated if the text size is large, you might vary it while you are
testing.

I found from my experience that I had to design and publish my pages on a
desktop computer, as the laptop did not render the pages in the same way.

Bottom line is that Publisher is a DTP, that also can produce simple, static
web pages, that do not automatically adjust appropriately to a monitor size
or setting. There are going to be monitors that view your site where
elements will not render as you intended. This is one of the limitations of
using Publisher for web pages, and can be a challenge for any web app. If
you can't live with that, then perhaps consider switching to FrontPage or
another application specifically designed for web design with less
limitations. Sorry.

DavidF

 

[BeamGuy]

David,

Thanks again for your interest. I have changed the screen resolution on my
laptop - and there is no change in the alignment of items in either firefox or
IE. The text box still scales differently than the form boxes. Earlier I also
changed the DPI setting for the screen back to a standard value - with no
effect. I don't know what else Dell might have changed.

I made a simple little webpage with just a text box and a one line form,
and low and behold even when I ask to see it previewed in my web browser
here on the laptop it comes out distorted in both browsers. It can't get much
simpler than that.

As far as switching to Frontpage why should I trust that I would be any better
off after paying another $170? My company already paid roughly $300 for this
copy of office professional that publisher comes in.

I'm not looking to make a very fancy webpage... but it is important that the
text blocks not be piled up on top of each other in a wide variety of computers,
wider than I have access to.

-thanks,
Mike

 

[DavidF]

Mike,

I understand your frustration, but can't offer any solution. The nonstandard
screens and resolutions used on laptops frequently have problems with
Publisher web pages <shrug>. As for FrontPage, perhaps you should post your
"challenge" in the FrontPage newsgroup and see if anyone there has had the
same problem, and find out if you will be able to do what you want, before
you buy the software. FWIW you are also likely to have problems with your
Publisher webpage rendering correctly in FireFox. Its code is designed
primarily for IE, and many/most find their pages don't work or look right in
FireFox. FrontPage, or other software specifically designed for building
websites, will have better cross browser support, and in the long run you
will probably be happier.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

DavidF

 

[BeamGuy]

Hello David,

I have investigated the issue and can explain what is wrong with the HTML generated by
publisher. In the end I found 3 bugs, two in publisher and one in a likely little used feature
of Internet Explorer.

Since the story is rather involved I wrote it up as a website. I have published it here.
http://www.ponkapoagcamp.org/publisher/ as well as overwriting my original site - which
I will fix later.

Let me know what you think.

-Mike

 

[DavidF]

Mike,

I'm impressed on several levels. No one in this group has researched this
issue and offered such a complete explanation as to this issue, and you
cranked out a pretty darn good website in quick order. As per your analysis
of the problem, I will have to defer to others, and hope David Bartosik sees
it before you take it down. May I have your permission to copy the content
before you take it down? I want to forward it to some "powers that be" at
Microsoft, have time to study it myself, and perhaps offer it to others when
they post about this issue in the future.

DavidF

 

[BeamGuy]

David,

Yes, I was hoping to get the notice of someone at Microsoft that could
make a change - though I am thinking of writing a post processor that
makes the fix. I edited my email form by hand changing all the px numbers
to pt numbers and it is now cross browser and cross screen resolution
capable.

To make it easier to copy I have zipped it together into one file that
you can find at:
www.ponkapoagcamp.org/publisher/site.zip

-mike

 

[DavidF]

Mike,

I wouldn't hold my breath about any changes being made to Pub 2003. If you
can find workarounds, that is about the best you have to hope for. I don't
expect any more changes to Pub 2003 with the next version due out late this
year.

I don't know if your analysis of the situation is accurate or not, but I
downloaded your file to study. Hopefully someone a lot smarter than I am
will come along and comment on it. Thanks for your efforts.

DavidF