Enlarge and shrink text

[Anette]

Hi,

One can use the scrollbutton at the mouse + Ctrl button to enlarge and shrink text on a web page. This works fine for my pages in Firefox but not IE. Is there something I need to do to make it work in IE?

[Death Slaught]

Hi,

One can use the scrollbutton at the mouse + Ctrl button to enlarge and shrink text on a web page. This works fine for my pages in Firefox but not IE. Is there something I need to do to make it work in IE?

Post some/all of your code so we can search it for possible errors.

Thanks, Death

[Soup]

Hi,

One can use the scrollbutton at the mouse + Ctrl button to enlarge and shrink text on a web page. This works fine for my pages in Firefox but not IE. Is there something I need to do to make it work in IE?

If your font size is specified in pixels, you cannot scroll the size in IE6, though you can in Firefox, IE7, and Safari, as you mentioned.

IE6 does not support resizing text if it's in pixels. If you really want IE6 users to have that functionality (and I wouldn't care), change your font size to another unit, like ems or pts. But I wouldn't recommend that either.

With IE6 on its way out, this will be less of a problem.

[Anette]

If your font size is specified in pixels, you cannot scroll the size in IE6, though you can in Firefox, IE7, and Safari, as you mentioned.

IE6 does not support resizing text if it's in pixels. If you really want IE6 users to have that functionality (and I wouldn't care), change your font size to another unit, like ems or pts. But I wouldn't recommend that either.

With IE6 on its way out, this will be less of a problem.

Ok. Another IE problem. Thanks for your info!

Just curious - why isn't it a good idea to change font size to another unit, like ems or pts. ?

[Soup]

Actually, it's alright, and many developers would have no problem sizing in ems and may do it by default.

But pixels guarantee, to a better extent than other units, that the size of the font you see is what your visitors see, because all pixels are the same. Other units rely on sometimes complicated rendering models. For instance, do some research on sizing by ems and you will discover a number of different methods, like setting a percentage on body and sizing down from there.

With pixels, you can set it and forget it, and most modern browsers will allow the scrolling resize if it's too small or large. With IE6 being the crapper it's always been, talk of using other units came into style. But with IE7 beginning to overtake it, I'm betting the trend will go back to the much easier, and now equally fluid, pixel. And thank goodness.