Microsoft decided a couple of years ago to ignore industry standards (offered by the W3C council) and develop Internet Explorer along a completely different path. For web developers, this means double work having to make sure IE users and the rest of the world see the same thing the same way on our web pages. This is no easy feat. Internet Explorer is still available and in use in several incompatible and unsupported versions on the computer of many hams today. The reasons for this are many and varied but boil down to this: Many users prefer to keep what they know works rather than risk installing the latest from Microsoft.
This is certainly an option. If you choose this path you should know that this display problem is only one of many, many problems you will encounter as you surf the web and time goes on. This problem is compounded by the fact that the W3C council has published HTML5 standards that browser makers (except for Microsoft) have begun compliance with. Microsoft has abandoned development on the 32 bit platform in favor of Windows 7 and IE 9, Microsoft's new browser shipped with Windows 7 (not backward compatible with Vista or XP). Although IE9 has some HTML5 capabilities, it is light years behind the likes of Google Chrome and Firefox which already offer 96% compatibility with HTML5 W3C published standards or with WebKit based browsers like Safari from Apple. Also consider HTML5 has not been fully drafted and the standard is still evolving. Nonetheless, we are striving to move forward with an HTML5 upgrade to the Section web pages. The simple solution is to download and install Internet Explorer in it's latest version — IE8 on XP SP3 and Vista, and IE9 on Windows 7 (IE9 does not work on XP or Vista). If you are still using Windows ME or some other very old Windows version, your ONLY option is to upgrade both hardware and software. If you are an XP or Vista user and this is not an option for you and you would like to keep your old version of Internet Explorer (understanding what that means for the future), you still have a solution available (Vista users will likely have IE7 or IE8).
That solution involves downloading and installing another browser called Mozilla FireFox. FireFox has been around for a long time and is very stable. Mozilla is the originator of the Internet browser and has continued that trailblazing tradition with FireFox. In it's latest version (v9) FireFox is fully compatible with all W3C standards (completed so far) for rendering web pages from HTML4 and 5, CSS, and many other sources. To do this visit www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/fx/ to download the latest version. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Don't like the way it looks? Well get the theme you like from the Mozilla add-ons. There are themes that will stylize FireFox the way you like it. Fond of IE? There is a theme that is so much like IE you will not miss Internet Explorer at all. Like the look of Safari? There is a theme for that. Customize FireFox the way you like it.
Some users are on specialized browsers based on IE7 or IE8 (such as AOL or EarthLink). Each Internet provider has an updated version of your software that includes an upgrade to the browser compatible with IE8 or IE9 (depending on your Windows version). For more reasons than the one we just mentioned, you should download and install the upgrades for your Internet provider as soon as possible.
You may also wish to try using the CTRL-plus (+) and CTRL-minus (-) key combinations to see if your browser will zoom the page larger or smaller to accommodate your monitor resolution. The minimum resolution any web designer is designing for is 800 x 600 pixels with 1024 x 768 recommended at the highest color possibilities (24 bit or True Color). You will be surprised how much small adjustments such as these may improve the way web pages are displayed.
A final possibility may be the choices made for fonts in your browser. On windows, use the following fonts to get the best results for IE, Chrome, Safari and FireFox:
- Default font: DejaVu Sans Mono 16 point
-
Serif Font: Liberation Serif 14 point or
Serif Font: DejaVu Serif 14 point - Sans Serif: Arial 14 point or Deja Vu Sans
- Proportional: Courier New 12 point, Deja Vu Serif, or Liberation Serif 12 point
These choices are available in the Preferences for FireFox, Safari and Chrome and in the Internet Options on IE.
The point here is that, as hard as we try to make the Section Web site look and work the same on the most popular browers, we cannot make your outdated and unsupported browser work up to current standards.
We have also received inquiries about broken links on the site. We are always interested in fixing any broken or missing links on the Louisiana Section Web Site. However, site host statistics show that some users are demanding pages that are no longer valid and have not been in use for more than a year. This most often happens when users try to access pages on the web site from bookmarks that are outdated, or stored pages from offline sources, or sometimes cached pages in search results. Do not trust a link from any web site that you do not trust implicitly to be up to date. The Section Web site changes frequently (that means one to many times daily). Pages are posted and taken down as they become relevant, superseded, or outdated. Your best option is to visit the home page for the Louisiana Section and follow the links provided from there. Be sure you use the refresh button on your browser to reload pages recently viewed in order to get any updates that have happened since you last viewed the page. This includes the home page. Any difficulties encountered should be reported to the WebMaster via email ASAP.
If you are having difficulty and need assistance, please email me or any other Technical Specialist near you.