Let's not pick on any one department for being less than perfect with
user control over font size, and I apologize for appearing to do so. My
own site also locks the font unless the user turns on accessibility. In
fact of the half dozen MSU departmental sites I just looked at randomly,
only one seems to scale the font correctly using the IE font size
setting. It's still a learning process for most of us.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Gorentz [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 2:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] New web site comments
At 01:44 PM 1/18/2006, Chris Wolf wrote:
>I realize the following doesn't fully solve the problem you and John
>are having, but...
>
>1) MSU's new home page generally follows better design practices than
>the other ones you are having trouble with. Specifically regarding font
>sizes, the registrar's site has font sizes specified in absolute
>measurements (pixels in this case), which to a great extent reduces the
>user's control over their view of the page. Most designers feel that
>it's better to use relative font sizes because it gives more control to
>the user. MSU's new home page uses relative sizes. So my view is that
>the registrar's site is more to blame than MSU's new site for the fact
>that you have to change your browser settings. Again, I realize this
>just gives you a different target for blame, without solving your
problem.
Agreed. The web team has done a good thing by not using absolute font
sizes. That sort of behavior is to be encouraged. I still wish they
would make their font sizes a little larger than they have done. (Do
there really exist people who can read those teensy fonts in the
lefthand submenus? Well, I can read them for a few seconds, but it's a
painful experience.)
>2) If it's an option for you, consider using Firefox or Netscape
>instead of IE. They (and some other browsers such as Opera) have a true
"text zoom"
>feature which gives better font resizing on almost any web page without
>having to change your browser settings the way you have to in IE. I
>would be really surprised if IE 7 doesn't include a comparable feature,
>so another option would be to wait for it to come out.
Last time I used Firefox the font size controls weren't all that great
compared to what I've used on Opera. I've been thinking of giving it
another try to see what's been done, lately, and also to see if it lets
me override the fixed line heights that so many webs are using these
days. (Thankfully, MSU's has not gone down that road.) IE6 doesn't
have an override for that.
I'd be glad to go off bicycle touring and have nothing to do with the
web until IE7 comes out, but unfortunately my family and employer expect
me to get work done in the meantime, which means I have to do something
in order to use the web. I'll probably have to go back to putting
Opera on my computers again.
Maybe someday there will be better column handling features, too. I'm
hoping that would do away with the problem that I originally reported.
John Gorentz
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On Behalf Of Byers, Sharon
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 11:26 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] New web site comments
>>
>> The problem is that changing the text size from the View menu doesn't
>> work on all websites, for example our current RO website, whereas the
>> Accessibility method does.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Wolf, Chris [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 11:12 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] New web site comments
>>
>> The warning about obsolete browsers does not refer to IE6; it's
>> talking about much older versions. Although IE6 has a few minor CSS
>> bugs, its support of CSS is generally very good.
>>
>> When you're viewing CSS pages, the "ignore font sizes..." may not be
>> the best method for getting larger fonts on the screen. Have you
>> tried leaving the "ignore font sizes"
>> unchecked and using View, Text Size to make the text larger?
>> This method works on both the old and new MSU pages.
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: MSU Network Administrators Group
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>>
>> > Behalf Of Byers, Sharon
>> > Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 10:48 AM
>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>> > Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] New web site comments
>> >
>> > I see this message in the status for the new website. I
>> reported the
>> > same accessibility problem John mentions below, except that
>> I'm using
>> > SP2. I hope this doesn't mean we're just out of luck!
>> >
>> > "Because of problems with their support for cascading sytle sheets
>> > (CSS), some obsolete web browsers may have cosmetic problems
>> > displaying sites that use CSS, including MSU's new site. The
>> > recommended solution is to upgrade to a current browser version."
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: John Gorentz [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> > Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 1:37 PM
>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>> > Subject: [MSUNAG] New web site comments
>> >
>> > I'm going to post some comments about MSU's new web site here. I'd
>> > use the on-line form for providing feedback, but that form
>> insists on
>> > my providing a ranking of a whole bunch of things before
>> it'll let me
>> > submit my comments. I hardly ever participate in doing rankings on
>> > surveys like that. They're not going to provide the
>> recipients with
>> > useful information, so why should I waste my time on them?
>> > It hurts my
>> > head to try to squeeze my opinions into a 1-5 ranking. And
>> > besides, I
>> > didn't even have opinions on all the items that form asks about.
>> >
>> > My comment is based on a look at the home page only. The
>> > following is
>> > what I tried to submit before I saw that the form wasn't going to
>> > cooperate:
>> >
>> > I don't think users with visual difficulties are going to
>> like the way
>>
>> > the menu on the left overlaps the text. I use
>> > IE6 SP1 with the accessibility feature, "Ignore font
>> sizes...". I use
>>
>> > this option because most web pages use fonts that are too small for
>> > comfort. I've
>> > taken a screen shot of the results and have put it on my
>> personal web
>> > site for you to look at. It's at
>> > http://www.johngorentz.com/pix/msupage.jpg
>> >
>> > There were no such problems with the old web page.
>> >
>> > I like the color scheme on the old one better, too. After
>> all, it's
>> > supposed to be "Go Green! Go White!", not "Go Green! Go Grey!"
>> >
>> > John Gorentz
>> > W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
>> >
>>
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