[WEB4LIB] HTML problem

[Thomas Dowling]

----- Original Message -----
From: Stacy Pober <spober at manhattan.edu>

> I'm making an HTML document from an Excel spreadsheet of our library's
> periodical holdings.  I formatted it into a dictionary list. The file
> displays fine in Internet Explorer, but in Netscape 3.04 and Netscape
> 4.61, the font changes back to the default font after entries with ISSN
> numbers.  I mention the ISSN's because they have HTML changing them to
> italic and small, but they do not use any <font> codes.  There are no
> font codes in the individual dictionary terms or definitions - only a
> font code at the beginning of the list and at the end.  What gives?  The
> individual <DD> entries are very long - could that have anything to do
> with it?  I tried using size variation using <font size="-1"></font>
> tags instead of <small></small> for the ISSN listings and that didn't
> make a difference.  If there are no other </font> codes in the document,
> why is it changing it back to the default browser font after the small &
> italic codes?  In testing, eliminating the ISSN number and its
> associated codes did eliminate the font change problem.

You're leaving off the optional </dt> and </dd> tags.  Netscape is known for
reacting badly when optional end tags are left off other elements--</td> and
</tr> are common problems.  It's possible that Netscape will shape up if you
add the end tags.

On the other hand, this sounds an awful lot like a CSS bug in which Netscape
will occasionally revert to default font settings part way through a list,
sometimes leaving out numbering in OLs or bullets in ULs as well.  If you're
somehow recreating that without CSS, there may be no fix for it.

Regarding <SMALL>: While the HTML 4.01 recommendation does say "Renders text
in a 'small' font", the XHTML 1.0 DTD says:

  <!ELEMENT small %Inline;>   <!-- smaller font -->

I take that as clarification that <SMALL> really is intended to be a
somewhat smaller rendering of the current font rather than some absoluter
"small" size.


Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu