Re: CSS alternative for frames

Phil Smith wrote:
> 
> I do a bit of web site design in my spare time and, having a friend who surfs the net using a screen reader (as he is completely blind), I am trying to get up to speed on accessibility issues in web site design.
> I also like learning new techniques and have been looking into CCSs as an alternative to HTML formatting of web pages.
> I was interested to read the section in your 'Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0' on frames and I thought I'd give the CSS example a go and see how effective it was.
> Well, it wasn't.  I was particularly keen to use the 'position:fixed' method to tie the menu to a particular position on the screen.  However, this did not seem to work.
> In MSIE v5.01, the 'menu' OBJECT opened in a box on the screen, but then moved with the rest of the document.  It was also positioned relative to its position in the HTML source, rather than the position detailed in the CCS code:
> OBJECT { position:fixed; left: 0; bottom: 0; width: 25%; height: 75% } i.e. the bottom left of the screen.
> In Navigator 4.7, the CSS code had absolutely no effect (I even checked to see if I had CSS support switched on).  It simply displayed the link.
> Am I doing something wrong, or are Microsoft and Netscape not following CSS standards?

Hello Phil,

I don't believe that NN 4.* supports the 'position' property. I think
that
NN 6 will (but I'm not sure about that). 

I think MSIE 5 does support 'position'. Your code was:

  OBJECT { position:fixed; left: 0; bottom: 0; width: 25%; height: 75% } 

You are right that with 'position: fixed', the references should be
the viewport edges. So it would seem that IE 5 doesn't support 'fixed',
and treats it like absolute instead.

In short, I think it's a little too soon to start using CSS to replace
frames. You may also find other solutions to your design needs than
frames
(i.e., do you really need frames?).

 - Ian

-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Monday, 7 August 2000 12:02:20 UTC