Text rendering is unpredictable, often overflowing boxes (objects) with Firefox, whereas IE seems to render properly. Changing browser text size should not affect text size, but does with Firefox and Site Spinner. Unchangeable text size is necessary to achieve true WYSIWYG. Site Spinner should work with the 2nd most popular browser, but does NOT. As Firefox and open source becomes more popular this anomaly becomes more critical.

I have done the following tests: Changing IE 7.0 text size does not change Site Spinner 2.70f generated text size (good). Firefox 2.0.0.12 (running on both Win XP and Linux Ubuntu 7.10 distros) does allow browser changes to affect text size (bad). Furthermore on Firefox on the Linux Ubuntu distro, the Site Spinner (Aerial) font is not maintained, thus further complicating the WYSIWYG, whereas Aerial font is maintained on the Firefox with Win XP.

Additional tests: Using www.cnn.com web site with Firefox (on both XP and Linux) changing browser text size still causes text size change, however there is an accompanying (compensating) object size change, therefore text does not overflow background shaded box objects as it does with Site Spinner.

Two of my sites www.lavacagcd.org and www.seadrifter.org

Text rendering is happening the way it is coded. What you are commenting on is the accessibility issues (interaction?) between the browser and the HTML code.

SiteSpinner is not a tool readily adapted to producing accessible-enhanced pages. This takes special page designs and layouts. Even the CNN site fails in a few areas.

There are several issues with using windows fonts on Linux systems. Arial for example, is not a native Linux font, so it will not be rendered the same using Windows and Linux versions of Firefox. Even Safari for Windows has trouble rendering the Window fonts.

A method of designing with SiteSpinner to take advantage of browser magnification was discussed here. Hopefully this will of some help. The same method (using tables) also seemed to fix most problems associated with Linux systems. (This was discussed in the forum several months ago.)

It is my understanding that no one is having text overflow (overrun) problems with IE-7. This is because changing text size in the browser has no affect on Site Spinner generated text blocks. To demonstrate this please access my test page using IE-7 here  http://lavacagcd.org/test.html. You will note that the 3 blocks of text, using various fonts, always remain unchanged when changing test size at the browser lever. Try all five IE-7 options (largest, larger, medium, smaller, smallest) and see for yourself that the text remain unchanged. This is the way Firefox should work with (or respect) Site Spinner WYSIWYG generated text.

Using the same test page http://lavacagcd.org/test.html it can be further demonstrated that Firefox on XP can be made to render exactly the same as IE, but ONLY when the text size is set to Normal (Ctrl +0). Increasing text size (Ctrl ++) causes text to overflow. This is problematic because there is no guarantee that a web site visitor will have their text size set to Normal.

Furthermore Firefox on Linux overflows (slightly) when set to Normal, due to the fact that Aerial font is not supported in Linux. However, by adjusting text one click smaller size the overflow is eliminated, but exact alignment can not be achieved, again due to the differences in font.

Considering that Firefox is now becoming more popular, it would behoove Virtual Mechanics to be talking to the Firefox open source community to see what can be done to make Firefox behave more like IE as well as to have a common set of fonts. With this current incompatibility, Site Spinner is not a viable option for commercial use.

Consider this test page. It resizes fairly well in both Firefox and Opera, but fails in IE.

I get different results. Your test works fairly well in IE-7.

What are you using to draw the boxes in your test? The boxes resize with the Ctl++ and Ctrl +- (good) , whereas mine remain fixed size which causes my overflow. Your test does not overflow with Firefox on XP or Linux. IF my boxes worked as well as yours, I would not be getting complaints. How can I generate boxes that zoom along with text? Check mine out, they remain fixed and text when zoomed it overflows box. Can you figure out the difference on their action?

Another comment on Firefox with your test boxes and the picture…… The picture if the truck remains fixed size and the text and boxes changes relationships which is not a true zoom or magnification…. The original relationships are distorted with progressive zooming. Eventually the boxes come together and touch ruining the relationship. This is not a true zoom or magnification. Microsoft EI-7 however zooms perfectly and it truly changes magnification without goofing up relationships. IE-7 works perfectly with Site Spinner whether using your test or mine.

Again I appeal to Virtual Mechanics to do something about this. Please work with Firefox or fix your product to work with the worlds 2 most popular browsers. Let me repeat….. Site Spinner as currently implemented is not a commercially viable product because of the unpredictability with Firefox. VM pleases respond.

There is some discussion here, including a link to the Mozilla discussion.

We are working on the way code is generated to improve text resizing. That appears, for now, only in the SiteSpinner pro beta (see here). You can see an example of the pro beta code here: http://www.virtualmechanics.com