help! the look of my website is different on different windows pcs

[seekertom]

I'm trying to be concise, but it ain't easy! My website began with mostly arial rounded mt fonts, and some arial bold, a couple others. Text was mostly 12 pt. When uploaded to the web, some pc screens displayed perfectly, but on others, the fonts enlarged which blew off the way the screen was laid out and links were covered, text ran off the page etc. In some cases, the fonts reverted to entirely different type.
Reading about 'web-safe' fonts, I changed most text to Georgia, some arial, some Times new roman. Same problem on the web... stuff displays differently on some pcs.
On the ng-display: I changed from 1024x768 res to 1280x1024 and that pretty much fixed most problems. Also, ctrl-plus and ctrl-minus changed the screen display size and to an extent, also fixed most of the problems. But I can't expect the world to be doing this to look at my website.
I also tried screen-printing the pages into paint, then converting the text areas into jpg images, and then used them to replace the actual text. This worked across the board, and the ng-display was perfect.... except... passing thru the paint into jpg makes the text a bit fuzzy... yuk!
Another thing... I started with a blank page 800x600, then added my graphics and text and stuff. There are also options for starting with 640x480 and 1024x768 . Is one preferable to the others to end up with best display on most pcs?

so. Is there any web-design software out there that will create a webpage that displays the same on 'all' pcs? or, is there something I need to know to fix the problem using the one I've got? btw, I usually export to html dynamic, but have the same problem if I use html with css.
I've tried the xara free try, and like it so far, but can't upload a test page to the web to see if it has the same problems as my 'brand-x'.
Any suggestions etc would be GREATLY appreciated!
thanks, seekertom

[steve.ledger]

Welcome seekertom,

Make sure you are using 'text areas' and not just typing onto the page and using hard returns for new lines.
Also, do not 'drag-resize' text once you have created it. Swipe-select and resize using the text tool only.
Xara provide a number of webpage template sizes. Check File>>New

[gwpriester]

Welcome to TalkGraphics

How exactly are you viewing the page on other computers if you cannot upload a test page? Do you mean to this forum or to a web server? If you have uploaded a test page on the web, send us a link so we can see if we are having the same problem you describe.

CSS pretty much is what you want, since it specifies the font and the size, color etc. But unfortunately you have no control over other people's computers. Sticking to web safe fonts (the top list of fonts in the Fonts drop down list) are web safe fonts (Arial, Times Roman, Verdana, etc.) is a good idea. If you specify a non-web safe font, lets say Adobe Fangsong Standard Regular, the font will appear perfectly in your monitor because you have the font installed. But if your visitor does not have this font, then they may see Times Roman or another web safe font.

Also, not sure how you are uploading your files to the server, but when you publish your page or site and give it the name index.htm, Xara creates a folder index_htm_files which has to be published to the root directory. This folder contains your images, and a CSS file and may contain other objects or files for your site. If this folder is not found, images will display as broken icons, buttons will not appear or work correctly, and fonts may not display correctly.

Does this and what Steve has suggested above, help solve your problem?

[seekertom]

First, I have been using a prog (initials wepro ver8 ... don't know if I'm allowed to say it out loud or not...). I'm here because I'm wondering if this is a software prob or just my inexperience. I downloaded xara trial prog. to see if it did the same thing, eliminating the ng software question, but it won't allow me to upload the webpages to my host, so that part of the test fell flat. However, the preview site on my local pc shows normal.
I used 'my' prog to create a site (link removed) which is there now in all its problems. It is 35 pages, 460 files, 4.3 megs uploaded. I use filezilla client to upload the htmls to my host, godaddy. My 'ng' pc is winxppro with firefox ver 3.6.9. The one it works on is also xppro but upgraded graphics, and firefox is the same. At the site, as you use the buttons on the left side, in sequence, almost every page has a problem with font sizes explosions.
Now, using this link, (link removed), I have the first 5 pages 'duplicated', except all the text and pics were screenprinted into paintshop pro, saved as png's, then inserted as images into the blank layout. This shows what everything is supposed to look like. Problem is, it takes a bit to download the images first time, until cache collects them. Obviously, this is not the way I want to go!
As far as screwing up the procedures between local and the host, or not following procedures in the program related to how to create a text box etc, if that were the case, the website would be trashed on all pcs, right?
The 2 current sites are css, but I had the same thing with dynamic.
Pls give her a look and let me know what you think.
thanks for the help!
tom

[seekertom]

btw, almost forgot, on the server, the main website has the index.html and all other files in the root directory. There are also numerous other subdirectories below root which contain misc other websites etc, including 'pngpages'. Each of these guys has their own set of index.html and other files. The reason I called them pngpages is becaise instead of saving the graphics tidbits as jpgs like before with the raggedy edges, this time I save them as pngs to see if there would be a diff... there is, and the jaggies are gone, but the overhead is unacceptable for normal use like this.
tom

[gwpriester]

You may have a problem with conflicting files, and or files with the same name. This forum is for discussing Xara products, so please do not ask for support with your other application.

I suggest that you create a new folder in the root directory of your web host. Call it something like test

Upload your Xara files to the /test directory not the root directory.

Then view the site by going to your website and adding /test to the URL. For example, if your website is named www.Tom.com then go to www.Tom.com/test

I cannot think of any reason why the demo would not let you upload your site unless the ftp info you entered was incorrect. The trial versions are fully functional, they just expire after 30 days. But the features are all operational.

If you are using Filezilla, publish your site to a folder on your desktop, then upload the index and index_htm_files folder to the test directory.

[seekertom]

Reason I came here was because of xara... I like what I see. I just was hoping the problems I am having were familiar to you guys and maybe you'd tell me that xara would not have the same problems. No problem to buy it... it's just why buy it if it won't fix the problem.
As far as fully functional, I'll dig further to see if my page samples can be uploaded to my hositing place.
Thanks again,
tom

[seekertom]

I hope you might give this a bit more time. It's really an interesting problem. Besides, I'm using xara now. I still have about the same problem. As you suggested above, I put the xara demo website into its own folder under root on the host. (Firefox has a feature for changing screen text size by using ctrl- or ctrl+.) When I ctrl- or ctrl+ a bunch of times, the text changes size disproportionately with the graphics change in size, resulting in text bleeding over above or below a graphics element. Originally I figured this was due to the chosen font, but after changing everything to arial, the problem remained. Then I ported over to xara, and the problem still remains, even when viewing the xara demo, unchanged.
'Commercial' websites do not exhibit this behavior.
Using IE-6, changing text size is thru the menu view-text size-smaller or bigger, but the xara demo site doesnt respond to this. Other websites do respond and change their text size properly. My old site responds to IE, but things get screwed up because not all the text nor the graphics size the same!

So I guess I'll phrase my questions like this: 1) why doesn't the xara demo site change text size in IE6? and 2) why do the text and graphics elements in the xara demo respond disproportionately to size-changes in firefox?

I guess there's a number 3 as well... when you begin a webpage with a new blank page, there are 3 main resolutions to select from, cga, vga and xga. Each has a particular size of 'paper' to 'draw' on. The demo is vga. My original site was xga. When I started fresh with xara, I chose xga so I could fit all my stuff on the page. But how does a person decide which format is correct?
Hope you are able to help me here. I'm nearly bald from pulling my hair out!
tom

[steve.ledger]

why do the text and graphics elements in the xara demo respond disproportionately to size-changes in firefox?

Because you are using an old version of FireFox.
Upgrade and enjoy a full head of hair.

[seekertom]

Thanks, but not the problem. I'm running ff 3.69. was 6.8, then upgraded. but no differences here. I'm starting to believe that this type of software just doesn't have the ability to set up a bullitproof website. Load up the firefox website and do the ctrl- or + thing a bunch of times, and the webpage always shrinks or grows proportionately.... mine don't, not even when created with xara. I'm still hoping it's me and how I am doing it, but I've yet to hear from anyone to say how I'm screwing up. But for sure, I do appreciate all input. Thanks anyhow. down a few more hairs today...