Date: 01/19/07 (WebDesign)    Keywords: browser, css, html, technology

I am trying to make an HTML template out of a Word document (which will then be used to dynamically generate more HTML documents). The client expects the HTML document to look reasonably like the Word document. So far, it has been an... "adventure." Let's just say that my .css file has gone through several changes, involving changing the units of measure from inches and points to ems to pixels... all of which resulted in various problems.

The client wants the HTML document to also be the hard copy, so we are also trying to get the template to fit onto 1 page, as the Word document does. This is an interesting problem, because depending on how the margins display, and the text size, the text may take up more lines in HTML than in Word, and then go onto another page. We are also trying to get all of the images to have the same proportions as they do in the Word document.


Inches: Measuring the structure in inches worked fine, until I realized that image sizes cannot be set in inches in CSS or HTML, so I couldn't make them proportional with the rest of the structure.
Ems: Measuring the images and text in ems, I could make them proportional to each other, but structure can't be set in ems, so I couldn't make the structure match.
Pixels: I had to set the width of the body to less than 800 pixels, so that it would fit in 800x600 resolution. I don't know how the browser decides to translate pixels onto the printed page, but I believe this caused the margins to be less wide than in the Word document, because the text ended up taking more lines, and going onto the next page in the print preview.



I personally feel that what we are trying to accomplish is not realistic or advisable, given how differently things will display (and print) in different browsers. But I thought maybe somebody might have some advice on either how to accomplish the goal, or what to explain to the client the limitations of the technology are. I just don't feel that I have enough experience to know how to approach the problem, or to confidently tell the client what is possible to deliver and what is not.

Thanks for any help or advice. I can provide more information (e.g. the Word document or the HTML I'm working on) if necessary; if you want to take a look, please comment with your e-mail address, as I'd rather not publicly link to those documents.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdesign/1210863.html