Posted by dorayme on 10/14/06 21:14

In article
<0001HW.C156A96500021799B019F94F@News.Individual.Net>,
patrick j <patrick@jamesnews.orangehome.co.uk> wrote:

> Here is the web-page:
> http://members.optushome.com.au/droovies/opinion/drugLawsFixed.html
>
> and here is the css:
> http://members.optushome.com.au/droovies/opinion/drugLawsFixed.css
>
> It is the declaration of max-width: 600px in the div selector that I'm
> enquiring about.
>
> Here it is in context:
>
> div {
> max-width: 600px;
> margin-top: 30px;
> margin-left : auto;
....

> My question obviously is can the max-width property be made to work in IE 6
> such that Dorayme's web-page will work in IE 6 as it does in every other
> browser I've tried?

Since posting this version of the CSS at ...Fixed.html, max-width
was changed to width="600px" to properly illustrate the
difference between:

<http://members.optushome.com.au/droovies/opinion/drugLawsFixed.ht
ml>

and

<http://members.optushome.com.au/droovies/opinion/drugLaws.html>

the latter using max-width in ems.

Aside from the point of the comparison for now, but my response
to your intelligent question about IE and max-width and the
display of this sort of pure text article is this. I would make a
style sheet for IE 5 and 6's eyes only and in that style sheet.
In that CSS, depending on my mood, simply let IE users see it as
fixed 600 or 800px wide or a guessed-by-me-as-being-suitable but
definite (width: rather than max-width:) number of ems.

Indeed, there are so many ways to go that it is hard to say which
is best. But, essentially, in a case like this, it is not worth
employing over fancy tricks for IE like javascript when a mere
"for IE eyes only" clause in the CSS or separate sheet will do.

You may find this article helpful to start with:

http://www.gunlaug.no/contents/wd_additions_14.html

--
dorayme

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