Posted by Jonathan N. Little on 10/18/07 15:34

Brian Cryer wrote:
> One of the websites I'm responsible for has a toolbar down the left hand
> side, which contains within it amongst other things a number of drop down
> list boxes. Depending on what the user selects a map or chart is drawn using
> the options the user has specified.

That's fine and the mystery URL is....?

>
> I've hit a problem with Internet Explorer. The left hand toolbar has a fixed
> width, and I constrain my drop down list boxes to that width. In Firefox if
> the content is longer than the list box then you still get to see all the
> content when you click on the box - but in IE its truncated. For example:
>
> <select name="Select1" style="width: 10em">
> <option>men, women and children</option>
> <option>boys toys</option>
> </select>
>
> The first option will be truncated in IE (the second option is short and
> displays fine), but in Firefox is still fully visible when you click on the
> list box and it opens (even though the width when collapsed is constrained
> to 10em). I hope that's clear.

Yep. IE will if your constrain the width of the parent SELECT then IE
will also constrain the width of the child OPTIONs.

> Its only recently that the content of these list boxes has grown. I don't
> want to increase the available width because that impacts on other things
> and I risk a complete page redesign (which I want to avoid). The client is
> happy that when the list box is collapsed that the content is truncated but
> wants to be able to see it in full when its expanded.
>
> Any ideas? or am I stuffed?

Redesign. IE will not cooperate with what you are trying to do. In FF
your can even specify the width of the OPTIONs, but will not happen in
IE. For example I will also change the color of the text in the SELECT
in relation to the OPTIONs

select { color: blue; width: 10em; }
select option { color: red; width: 50em; }

In FF the droplist will be 10em wide and text blue when closed, the list
expands to 50ems and the text is red when expanded.


In IE the droplist will always be 10ems wide and the text red.


--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

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