IE7: the good news

The cascading style sheet (CSS) absolute positioning page layout model used by Cascade DTP can cause problems when attempting to satisfy the requirements of web users who have poor eyesight.

Style sheets generated by Cascade DTP specify both the height and width of all text boxes by default. This is normally fine because the size of text placed into the boxes can also be specified - thus ensuring that the text fills the boxes as intended.

Problems can arise when a user with poor eyesight uses the View > Text Size option in Internet Explorer to increase the size of text (having first selected Tools > Internet Options > Accessibility (General tab) > ignore font sizes specified in web pages). Increasing the text size in this way may 'break' the page layout by causing text to overflow.

The screen shot below (Example 1) shows some text correctly fitted into a bordered box. Example 2 is the same layout as it appears after the user has changed the font size from Medium to Largest. Notice how the last few words have disappeared.

Fortunately, version 7 of Internet Explorer (IE7) has a better way of making web pages more accessible to users with poor eyesight - page zooming. The screen shot below (left) shows the bottom right corner of the IE7 window. Clicking the arrow to the right of magnifying glass icon launches a zoom level list. Example 3 shows what happens if 150% is chosen. Not only is the text made larger, but all other page dimensions are scaled by precisely the same factor - including the image size.

Clearly, page zooming (first introduced in the Opera browser, incidentally) is great news for web page authors who wish to employ absolute positioning. Not only does it mean that changes in text size will no longer cause problems, it also ensures that users with poor eyesight are able to appreciate every aspect of the original design.