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Archiver > BOARDS-ADMINS > 2002-08 > 1028298543


From: Denny Shirer <>
Subject: [BAd] Re: Waving Flag (was Re: Obituary Question)
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:29:03 -0400
References: <200208020605.g7265MX7021098@lists2.rootsweb.com>


Marilyn,

I'm answering because I started the thread on the fix for the flag for Joan's board. There is no "special code" as you call it. The "Links and Announcements" page should be treated as being any other web page meaning if you want to include HTML commands such as the image attribute that Joan used, the whole page should be edited as if it is any other HTML page. That means it has to use the common HTML
tags that begin and end the page allowing browsers to know that anything between those tags should be treated as being an HTML command.

I realize that many Board admins are not HTML savvy so this may be a bit confusing at first. The root of the problem that brought this thread up is the way Netscape and Internet Explorer (I.E.). handle HTML, style commands and java scripts. I.E. has added much code that tries to fix any bad code it finds so that if something does not include both sets of tags (some need both a beginning and end tag
such as < t a b l e > and < / t a b l e > (spaces added for all code listed here for readability by some browsers that may try to execute it) it tries to complete it when displaying the page. Netscape is a lot more strict when it comes to HTML code. If an end tag is not there, the page will not work. If the page is not identified by the beginning < h t m l > tag and the ending < / h t m l > tag, then
anything in the page is treated as text and not HTML code. I.E. being more forgiving, is not enough to make sure a page with HTML programming will look the same on all browsers.

Any programmer that wants their code to be visible by anyone that visits their page should test the page with as many browsers as possible but I have found that Netscape and I. E. are usually enough. It should be noted that a page may look differently on I. E. than Netscape and there are tools to recognize the browser viewing the page and to use different sets of code based on that browser so that the
page will appear the same or nearly the same on each browser type. This is a lot more complex than what anyone editing his/her "Links and Announcements" page needs to concern themselves with unless you are a programmer and willing to take the extra time to do it.

Most admins have only added text to this page and that will work fine in either Netscape or I.E. if that is all you are adding. Even some basic formatting tags can be performed by Netscape without the beginning and ending HTML tags. The subject of this thread was why the flag graphic would not work and that was because the image tag is an HTML command that needs to be in a page that is identified as
being HTML and those beginning and ending tags must wrap any tags of that type. There are other tags that should be included such as the < b o d y > and < / b o d y > tags and some others which are optional.

I don't want to turn this thread into a HTML programing class. There are many sources to learn the basic of HTML programming and anyone wanting to included advanced features in their "Links and Announcements" area should have some knowledge of what is involved. Get a good book on HTML or visit many of the sites on the web that include HTML tutorials and beginner and advanced HTML and Java coding tools.
To see what a web page code looks like, try right clicking on any page and choosing "View Source" from the menu. You will see all kinds of programming styles but 99% of all the pages you view will begin and end with those basic HTML tags.

If you are using some type of program that builds HTML code for you such as MS Front Page or MS Word, then be aware that they may add a lot of extra code or not enough. MS especially wants you to use their products so if you only use MS products, everything will probably work fine. When you try to view those pages using another product like Netscape is when you find that MS really did not do a good job
in creating those products. They don't care if Netscape can see something their products created but you should care. There might be some settings in those third party products to make them more stringent to the HTML standards so that they find missing and broken code so just don't assume that what is produced will look fine on all browsers. Test with more than just I.E. to make sure everyone can see
the fruits of your labors.

Denny Shirer - - North Canton, OH
Shirer Family Genealogy - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mysong
Muskingum County, OHGenWeb - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohmuskin/


> Subject: Re: [BAd] Re: Waving Flag (was Re: Obituary Question)
> Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 19:37:54 -0700
> From: "marilynandmonty" <>
> To:
>
> Tom and Joan,
>
> I hate to change the subject again, but does that mean if I'm building a
> webpage I should look at it in both Netscape and IE? What is this "special
> code" that makes something not visible to those with Netscape? I recently
> became the CC for a WVGenWen county. I'm building it with a third-party
> editing software, but looking at it through IE 6.
>
> Thanks!
> Marilyn
>
> <snip>



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