CSS / NS 4.7 won't co-operate :-(

I have a problem with my web page. I use CSS on the site, and everything works fine, except on Netscape 4.7
NS 4.7 shows all texts as font size 1, and I can't change the size even with <font>. It just ignores the tag. It also ignores tags like <b> or <i>. As you can imagine, it's really hard to read the text when using NS 4.7. How can I fix my problem?

not without the actual css and some html-snippets that don´t work.

nn4 is quite crappy. it does not parse most css at all. but if it does encounter css that it does not understands, it falls back to your browser defaults (user preferences)

your best bet is to do browser-detection and supply different css for nn4 than for others...

That was what I was afraid of. I don't quite fancy browser detectors, but if there really is no other way around it, I guess I'll have to do it that way then :-(

Is there a quick quide or table where I can see which definitions Netscape 4.7 doesn't like? I don't mind having 2 different stylesheets, but no matter where I look I can't find a quick guide and I don't really like the idea of reading my entire CSS book just to find out which definition is causing my CSS to be ignored in 4.7

BTW, I tried both a div and a span and both were ignored ... I read somewhere that 4.7 ignores divs ... is this true?

Do you have a specific set of users that are browsing your site w/ NC4.7x ?

NC4.7x accounts for about 1% of traffic these days. Unless you've got a core set of users that you /know/ are definitely going to browse w/ NC4.7x, then don't bother catering to an antiquated browser that never supported CSS properly in the first place. Its not worth your time.

Unfortunatly I do have a significant number of users who still use Netscape 4 and even lower ...

Interesting... any reason why they won't switch to Mozilla or Mozilla FireFox? Are they running on an OS like Solaris or something similar? Just curious as to why you'd have to support NC4.7x and lower.

Sounds like hell, frankly.

They're lawyers ... and after working here for 3 years I've learned that they're just now starting to learn about the internet, so they're behind the times and like what they have ... I guess.

Heh... I'd install Mozilla or Netscape 7 on their PCs after hours, and just use the 'classic' skin - they probably wouldn't ever realize what had happened.

Seriously though...
Explain to them that having to support older browsers costs them more money. It does. You're having to double your work to support NC4 and under, by creating custom CSS, HTML, etc. Tell them that the newer version of Netscape (v7) is more secure from hackers, supports more modern code, and therefore ultimately will save them money, I'm sure they'd upgrade. Offer to do the upgrades for them, and move all their bookmarks etc over.

Just a thought... IMHO its worth approaching them about it, rather than double your work effort to support antiquated technology. Believe it or not, lawyers can be reasonable.

I think ver 4.7 especially had problems. I think 4.5 and 4.7 were the redheadedstep children of 4.xx

I know your woes though, I was once on a project for Netscape themselves and one of the requirements was that ALL of netscapes browsers had to be taken into account and coded for.

ironically, their own site, netscape.com did not

ugh... what a nightmare

Its funny - I'm not sure if this is still the case, but one of the recent Mozilla.org site designs crashed NC4.7 and lower outright. Struck me as ironic/amusing that Mozilla's own site crashed the old NC browsers.

They don't work in my office. We cater to them ... but they're in offices all over the state ... I don't have a choice in this matter ... so is there a quick guide I can view somewhere to tell me which definitions might be causing it to choke?

I would think that http://devedge.netscape.com/ would have some kind of information on code compatibility w/ legacy NC browsers, but I'm not 100% on that.

Thanks I'll give it a try ... right now their site search isn't working.