The iPhone Problem is Solved
Huzzah, huzzah! Thanks to the able assistance of Jeanne Pickering of Pickering Web Design, AAR’s drop down menus are now working again. If you have an iPhone, all you need to do is refresh the page twice and the functional links will appear.
Sadly, it looks as if we still have problems with BlackBerry. Stay tuned, however, since we are in the process of developing a mobile site that will work on all smartphones.
– Sandy AAR
This can cause WTF situations!
Did you know that clicking on the ASIN number makes the iPhone think it’s a phone number? No biggie. Just thought I’d mention it.
I noticed the updates immediately on my iPhone! Thank you so much, so glad I don’t have to scroll all the way done to the bottom of the page anymore.
Thank you very much!
Thanks, Jeanne, for taking the time to explain that. At the point of being totally redundant, it’s not a problem; but it does look strange, especially when the menus are tapped to show the sub menus. Then it takes up (on my screen) almost half of the screen height space, especially if it’s a menu that has many options. But your explanation makes perfect sense and the important thing is that this does not interfere with the reading of the message boards or other pages. Thanks again.
Hi,
I’m Jeanne Pickering who re-wrote the code for the drop-down menus.
Those of you who noticed that the font size seems larger have a good eye! The font size is larger than it used to be because I set it to be the same size as the main text on the page. On the old links, the font was set to be about 85% of the main text. I had always found the dropdown menus difficult to read as a result and I couldn’t think of a reason why they should be smaller.
However, the font size of the text in the “”New or Updated at AAR”” box remains set at that 85% size. So, it may be that in comparison, the new dropdown menu fonts look much larger. Also, the old menu font size was set so that it would not change even if the individual user had her browser set to a larger size. Now the dropdown menu font size will now change according to the user’s settings.
The dropdown menu lines are also set a little bit farther apart than before, again to make them a little easier to read and use.
There are two possible downsides to this approach. One is that, if the user has her browser’s text size is set to a larger size, the last link: “”About AAR”” will wrap around to the next line because there isn’t enough room at the larger sizes. The whole site is set to a fixed rather than variable size so this is unavoidable, unfortunately.
Second, the menus are longer which might be a problem if the user is using a small netbook screen. The longest menu extends to just below the bottom border “”””New or Updated at AAR”” box which I believe should accommodate most netbook screens. If not, we’ll hopefully hear from enough visitors about it and I’ll shorten the line spacing.
I do want to say that I develop websites to work in browsers that meet accepted web standards which means Firefox, Safari and Chrome on both PCs and Macs. I then add supplements to the code to make the websites work in IE7 and above. I test the browsers in only the latest versions of all of these browsers.
(And, although it wasn’t an AAR reader who said it, I wish I could tell off that so-and-so who said that the site must be optimized for IE because if he had actually looked at the page source code he would have immediately seen the IE supplements. It was just a cheap shot on his part. Sorry for this bit of professional snarking, it’s not aimed at anyone here, of course.)
Thank you all for taking the time to write about the problems you encountered. It is so helpful to hear from users, it makes the website better and it makes me a better designer.
Jeanne
Oops. I was wrong about that. That is not happening on Internet Explorer. Oh, well. I don’t like Explorer at all and love Firefox, so I can deal with the menus looking that way.
I have a fairly new computer and am using the newly issued Windows 7. It’s possible that may have something to do with it. I tried using Internet Explorer and the same thing happens there too on AAR’s sites. It’s only a visual and not a malfunctioning problem, so that’s good. Just in case you get a few others with similar feedback, it would be interesting to know which Windows version they’re using.
I have the most recent version of Firefox too but the drop-down menus look fine on my computer.
I have the most recent Firefox Mozilla as well, and mine looks as Tee described. Day before yesterday it was normal. Not a problem for me either – just looks weird.
Thank you for fixing iPhone problem! My scrolling thumb says thanks, too.
I solved the Chrome problem by clearing all the settings under the options section. Now AAR works great!
@Tee – I haven’t heard from anyone else having this issue. And usually if there’s a problem, folks aren’t shy about lighting up my inbox. I checked with a software creator friend of mine and she said that it may be caused by the settings on your computer. She suggested contacting Mozilla/Firefox re:help on adjusting settings/font sizes.
It’s true that I do have my view size notched up a bit. But when I get it down to where the menu fonts are the correct size, then the rest of the text is way too small. But as I mentioned before, this isn’t really a problem because I don’t use the menus—it was just noticeable. Thanks for checking back, though. It’s really a small thing—the rest of the site works well.
I had a problem viewing AAR on Chrome for the longest time but the latest update seems to have solved the issue for me.
I have an iPhone and I noticed the fix right away! Thank you!
FYI. I have the latest Chrome and downloaded the IE Tab extension and the drop down menus on the Home page still don’t load properly.
Thanks!
@Tee Which version of Firefox do you have? I have the most recent update on my work computer and all menus are showing regular size here.
I have Firefox 3.6.3 and supposedly it’s the most recent update. This wasn’t a problem on AAR’s pages until yesterday, when I had trouble accessing the site most of the afternoon. Then when it did come in, only the menu fonts were that large and take up 1 1/2 lines. When they’re tapped, the sub menus’ fonts are also large. I can work with it with no problem since I rarely use them and instead use bookmarks, but I was wondering if anyone else was also noticing it.
The drop-down menus may be good on the iPhone; however, on AAR’s regular page accessed by PCs, the menus’ fonts are very large in proportion to the rest of the text on the pages. Maybe it’s just my browser (Mozilla Firefox), but it certainly looks super large in comparison.
I’ve heard from several folks with regard to Google Chrome. I actually got in contact with Google and was told that people who downloaded the Beta may have some problems with certain sites, AAR should be working normally if you have the most current version. An AAR reader also emailed to let me know that she posted about Chrome on Google’s help forums and got the following response re: the Chrome browser:
“”That page must be optimized for browsers like I.E. It does not always read correctly in Chrome. Get yourself the IE Tab -Version: 1.0.11208.1 from the extension gallery and it will read just fine.
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd “”
Hope that helps!
I thought I had the latest version of Chrome (v.4xxx…), and it still wasn’t working, but then I saw a link to “”upgrade to the latest beta version”” (which turns out is a v.5xxx…). I went ahead and upgraded to that and the dropdowns are working fine now. So if you’re willing to move on from the latest “”stable”” version, you can get the drop downs to work in Chrome.
Thanks so much for your hep!
just a quick comment of something to add to your to-do list, if it isn’t on there already:
The drop down menus don’t work in Google’s Chrome browser.
Thanks so much!