Tech: Invisible buttons

Subject: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Susan of DT
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 06:03 PM

Can anyone tell me what I did wrong, or more to the point, how to fix this. I use Netscape. On several web sites everything is fine until it says I should click the "submit" button or something like that and it isn't there. Well, if I cruise where I think it might be, my pointer changes to a finger and I can click it hoping it is really the right button. On other sites there are many invisible buttons. this probably predates my current computer, because I remember trying to sign up for the "do not call" list and not being able to submit it for lack of button to click. If I go to these sites in Explorer I can see the buttons. How do I fix this? Thanx in advance. I know some of you will know just how to fix this.

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: MudGuard
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 06:09 PM

Which version of Netscape do you use?
If the version is lower than 7.2 it is hopelessly out of date.

I'd suggest using Firefox 1.0 instead of it ...

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 06:10 PM

Which version of Netscape are you using? I still use 4 when possible, but a lot of sites now use scripts written in a way that older browsers can't interpret as intended, or which are Microsoft-specific and may not display properly on competitor software.

If Netscape 4, I'm afraid you're going to have to install a newer browser as well (or use IE more often) in order to be able to "see" everything.

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 06:23 PM

If you're running a WIndows system, shift to Internet Explorer. If Mac, shift to Safari.

Firefox has more beauty by far but in 10.3., anyway, is not as robust as it needs to be.

A

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Susan of DT
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 11:19 AM

I use Netscape 7.2

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 12:12 PM

In that case, I'd guess at a scripting issue; or else the sites may be using layers/ absolute positioning, which rarely works properly in non-Microsoft browsers and often results in page elements being superimposed on each other, making it impossible to activate some links or "buttons".

That's just speculation, though. Give us the address of one or two of those sites for a more considered opinion.

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: treewind
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 12:12 PM

Netscape 4 has real bugs where valid HTML or CSS crashes it or messes up big time.

I would never advocate changing to Internet Explorer. All it's good for is Windows Security Updates (and about half of those are upgrades to MSIE itself...)

Firefox 1.0 is very stable and capable. I use it for everything, on two different operating systems, it's never broken and it's become the official web browser for the whole office where I work.

Susan, can you give an actual URL for a site with "invisible buttons"?

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 01:31 PM

Firefox doesn't have some of the scripts for secure pages that my bank wants to use when I log on, so I have to go to IE. Netscape was always a nice browser, but at times it has been behind IE in functionality. It is owned by AOL now, so the associated email is no longer a simple text file to search and edit so I no longer use the Communicator program.

If you have filters set up, including a firewall or various programs that are meant to limit types of scripts then you might not be seeing everything. You might check your firewall and security settings.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: M.Ted
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 04:43 PM

I tend to browse with my music computer, which is a Mac running OS 8.6, and my browser of choice is iCab, which is fast and doesn't run into hangs and such things the way the Netscape 4 does(none of the later Netscapes are very reliable with this OS)--I do occasionally run into websites that want to see either Netscape or MS Explorer--and then I use Explorer, because Netscape tends not to work on them--

I have had the invisible button problem--and when I changed browsers, the button appeared--it was the button that allowed me to delete mail--for some reason, in Netscape, the button would disappear everytime I selected anything00

Safari is good, but I find the OSX to be slower, so I don't use it much--Maybe someone could explain to me why a meshuggah browser run by an obsolete operating system on an old computer with a 233Mhz processor is noticeably faster than the cool new browser run by Jaguar on a 1.2Ghz laptop--

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 07:55 PM

Off hand I would say it shouldn't be, and I would want to do some clean-up on the lap-top. Can iCab do Java applets such as chat rooms and the like?

A

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: M.Ted
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 02:59 PM

Yep-it can--a slight problem with it is that the cache files things in a large number of subfolders, and clean-up takes a bit of extra time--

The laptop with OSX is new, and so has very little on it to clean-up--the one with OS 8.6 is crammed full of stuff--any ideas would be appreciated--

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 03:05 PM

The program "Disk Utility" in the OSX Applications==>Utilities folder will do a lot of good; you may need to start up from a CD or a second HD to run it on your primary drive. Run First Aid and Repair Permissions and it will do some good. I am not sure how much, but it is good hygeine in any case.

A

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 09:14 PM

Mudguard, please explain why you say Firefox is better than Netscape. I downloaded it and installed it, and I didn't see any real difference, except that it doesn't seem to have an e-mail facility. Or if it does, it's pretty durn well hidden.

Otherwise, I didn't see anything that made me think it was any better than 7.2 Netscape.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Susan of DT
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 09:40 PM

On www.mapquest.com maps are invisible in netscape, but I can see them in explorer and I can see maps on mapsonus.com. At amazon.com all is well until the final submit the order button. at levenger.com some pictures are invisible, but the detail pages work.

So no magic "change this setting and all will be well" yet.

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: MudGuard
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 03:18 AM

Dave, Netscape is always a bit behind Firefox.
They use the same rendering engine (Gecko), but it always takes some time till the Netscape people adapt it to their browser.
This is also the case for security updates.

Firefox is just a browser, if you want email as well, use Mozilla or Firefox + Thunderbird.

Susan, when you mentioned mapquest I first thought you might have no Java plugin as most map services use a Java applet for displaying maps - but mapquest works even without Java, Flash and Javascript.
All pictures at levenger.com are displayed in Firefox 1.0 and Mozilla 1.7.3 (got no Netscape 7.2 here).

Stilly, Firefox doesn't have some of the scripts for secure pages that my bank wants to use when I log on, so I have to go to IE.
You probably mean: the web designers at your bank are unable to do their job.

Subject: RE: Tech: Invisible buttons
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 02:12 PM

I've looked at two examples (I am not going to submit an order at Amazon just to see if something goes wrong at the last minute!) but can't duplicate the problem from the information given. Netscape 7.02 displays maps for me (as does Netscape 4.7, come to that). Levenger uses scripting that doesn't work in older browsers (and says so if accessed via 4.7) but appears to work properly in 7.02, though the home page does contain some minor html errors.

Asking for tech support means that you have to be absolutely specific about everything. Otherwise all you'll get will be vague speculation.

What I can tell you is that some pages that rely on scripting will display unexpected results in non-Ms browsers because, presumably, they haven't been properly tested. At times, a script-generated order page that wraps properly in IE will appear in Netscape (and some others) as an extremely wide page in which you have to scroll across a couple or more screen-widths in order to find the "button" you want.