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sapientconceptions

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CSS and Netscape 6

I have an external stylesheet I'm including in my code and have having no luck at all getting it to display in Netscape 6.  NOTHING shows, but everything works fine in IE and NN 4.7. I've read about little quirks that the code requires in order to get things to work properly in Netscape 6 and I've tried them all and still have no luck.  Please advise me what needs to be done to fix the problem.

<!-- main.css -->
<!--
<STYLE>
BODY {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff}
A.link{FONT-SIZE: 11px; color: #0000CC}
A.visited {FONT-SIZE: 11px; color:#0000CC}
a.active {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif; color: #0000CC}
TD {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif}
.BGcream {COLOR: #000000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffeb}
.BGblue {COLOR: #ffffff; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #00CCFF}
.BGmedBlue {COLOR: #ffffff; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #3399cc}
.BGlightBlue {COLOR: #000000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d6ebf5}
.BGlightGray {COLOR: #000000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e8e8e8}
.BGgray {COLOR: #000000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #cccccc}
.BGblack {COLOR: #ffffff; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000}
.BGwhite {COLOR: #000000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff}
.BGmedGreen {COLOR: #ffffff; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #339933}
.BGgreen {COLOR: #ffffff; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #006633}
.BGred {COLOR: #ffffff; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #FF3333}
.BGdarkBlue {BACKGROUND-COLOR: #336699}
.BGorange {COLOR: #ffffff; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff6501}
.BGerror {BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff0000}
.FONTRegularSmall {FONT-SIZE: 10px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif}
.FONTBoldSmall {FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif}
.FONTBoldMed {FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif}
.FONTBoldLarge {FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 15px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif}
.FONTError {FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: #ff0000; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif}
INPUT {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial}
TEXTAREA {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial}
SELECT {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial}
OPTION {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial}
</STYLE>
//-->
Avatar of webwoman
webwoman

semi colons at the ends, don't put the style tags in the external style sheet (nor the comments), sans-serif or sansserif, not sans serif (spaces are problems)

Code for the page would be nice too. Are you getting any error messages?
Avatar of sapientconceptions

ASKER

Thank you for your suggestion webwoman.  All of those have been tried previously and none of them fix the problem.  Thanks.  The code on the page is as follows:


<LINK href="css/Main.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet>

no error messages are being displayed.
I also just realized that I'm using version 6.1 Preview Version 1.  Did stylesheets work at all with that particular browser?  Trying to upgrade now.

Thank you for your suggestion webwoman.  All of those have been tried previously and none of them fix the problem.  Thanks.  The code on the page is as follows:


<LINK href="css/Main.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet>

no error messages are being displayed.
I also just realized that I'm using version 6.1 Preview Version 1.  Did stylesheets work at all with that particular browser?  Trying to upgrade now.

If the file actually contains this:
<!-- main.css -->
<!--
<STYLE>
and this:
//-->

Then it is likely that Netscrap 6 is treating the content as an HTML comment

Cd&
Thank you for your suggestion webwoman.  All of those have been tried previously and none of them fix the problem.  Thanks.  The code on the page is as follows:


<LINK href="css/Main.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet>

no error messages are being displayed.
I also just realized that I'm using version 6.1 Preview Version 1.  Did stylesheets work at all with that particular browser?  Trying to upgrade now.

sorry for the repetative posts, but it seems refreshing the screen reposts the message again and again.. sorry.
There is a link at the top of the question "reload question"  use that to refresh.  The refresh button re-submits the last comment

Cd&
As has been said, definitely lose the <STYLE> tags.  And the comment tags.  CSS comments I belive are /* comment */  And semi-colons at the end of each style setting.
BODY {FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff;}
A.link{FONT-SIZE: 11px; color: #0000CC;}
A.visited {FONT-SIZE: 11px; color:#0000CC;}...

Another thing I can think of is casing of the style attributes.  Not sure if they are case sensitive or not.  I always use lower case.
BODY {font-size: 11px; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif; background-color: #ffffff;}
A.link{font-size: 11px; color: #0000CC;}
A.visited {font-size: 11px; color:#0000CC;}

And lastly, the font attributes in Netscape are a bit picky.  It is best to include BOTH font-size AND font-family but not only one of them.  font-family should always be last in the font settings as well. (Cd& can confirm how this rule really works).
BODY {font-size: 11px; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif; background-color: #ffffff;}
A.link{font-size: 11px; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif; color: #0000CC;}
A.visited {font-size: 11px; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans Serif; color:#0000CC;}
Case sensitivity... could be depends on whether NS6 is XHTML compiant... not sure.  The font problems that dij8 mentioned were always a problem in NS4, and I don't know if that is one of the bugs they carried over to NS6 or not.
I don't have NS6 installed t experiment because I can't be bothered with yet another bug-ridden fringe browser that does not hae enough market share to make supporting it worth while.

Cd&

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've tried them all to no avail.

I wish it was the case I didn't have to be worried about another bug-ridden browser, but I'm developing for solaris developers who's primary (half-way functional) browser is Netscape.

Thanks for trying to help.
Next step I guess is giving us some of the code from the page that is using this style sheet.  Not just the link but what you can of the page itself.  If it is sensitive information then maybe change some of the content but try not to change anything else as in don't chnage any tags).  It could be something in the HTML that is not working with the style sheet.  Pass that on and we might find a solution for you.  I can test at home with NS6.01 on Win2K Pro.
Wait... what version is having the problem? Is this Netscape 6 on SOLARIS? Does it work on other platforms??
Thanks for everyone's input.  I finally figured the problem was with case sensitivity and have resolved any display issues.  Also that the a.link, a.visited, etc. needed to be read as a:link, a:visited, etc.  So no more problems, thanks for the help!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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dij8
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No, it's not worth the points and the grade.  Primarly because although you gave an answer (wrong at that), that's not suffienct enough to be awarded the points (kinda like getting the answer wrong on an exam and still expecting points from the professor for ATTEMPTING to answer).  

Your statement was simply wrong and awarding you the points aren't fair to the others that gave comments as answers.  Not only did I not have to remove the <STYLE> and comment tags (which are ignored by browers), the semi-colon is used to seperate other properties for each style (which I'm sure you know).  Since there were no styles after the last one, the semi-colon isn't needed.  Lastly, you made a recommendation of checking casing. But your recommendation was made for style attributes, not the style names themselves.

Therefore (0/3?), your answers weren't 'appropriate' and the points are undeserved.

Thanks to everyone again.
OK, so get Community Support to delete the question or add it to the PAQ list.  Even though this is not an exam but a collaboration of ideas that may or may not help, and in this case may or may not have given you an idea to try even though the suggestion was not exactly exam like correct, the comments given may help someone else who doesn't care for exact exam like answers.
Even though deletion is mentioned here I'd like to point to two tools that helps with writing styles sheets.

1: W3C's CSS lvl 2 validator
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

2: WDG's CSS lint, CSSCheck
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/csscheck/

They'll automagically give you most of the information you want, both in debugging errors and making the style sheet more crossbrowser compatible and friendly to users.
my 2 cents...

netscape 6.2 rocks harder than anything else in my opinion.

check out the w3 css area in NS6.2 and you will see that it even supports the rounded border property which is CSS3.

most compliant browser yet.

Jim S.
Hello,

This question has been open for quite a while now and needs to be wrapped up.

Please do NOT accept this comment as an answer, as I am simply trying to alert those involved that the question is still open.

If any of the experts could come back and post any suggestions as to how they feel this could be wrapped up (delete, 0 PAQ, award points, etc), I'm sure the moderators would appreciate it.

Thank you,

BRUNO
I believe a delte has been mentioned, though dij8 probably deserves part points.  IMHO

Cd&
A C grade for Christmas?  You may find that experts are reluctant to help you in the future.

dij8,

I'll support you if you post a complaint in CS.

Cd&
dij8, so will I...
totally unfair. No link so we can see what's going on, no way to see how the styles are being used, takes forever to close out the question and gives a C?

Santa's not the only one who makes a list... ;-)
Thank you very much guys for your support.  I was somewhat offended by the grade but have received and seen so much of the same over the last year and a half I wasn't going to even bother with a short comment of incredible wit that clearly demonstrated my undeserved grade.  Might just do the boycott thing instead.  I have posted a comment in CS all the same. :-)
Point well taken, I too believe you deserve better and will change the grade to an A.

Thanks, and Happy Holidays to all,
ComTech
Community Support

BTW-sapientconceptions, the better you grade, the better help you will get.  The experts here are volunteers and are here to help.  Nothing against you personally.  I just believe it's better for all concerned.

Cheers
Hello all.

Here is what I have done.  I have changed the grade to an A as deserved.  If anyone feels this is in error, pleae post a question in Community Support.

Thank you
Computer101
Community Support Moderator
Thanks, Computer101  :-)

CT
WOW! two mods for the price of one.  :^)

Thanks for the help guys.  

Cd&