My pages contain Java Scripts. I have tried to write the scripts so that if your Browser does not understand Java Scripts, it will nevertheless do something reasonable, but I can't answer for every Browser. So if you click on something, and it does not do what you think it ought to do, or it gives you a javascript error message, that may be the reason. It is also possible that JavaScript has been disabled as default. You may be able to enable it under Network Options - Languages . Installing a newer version of your Browser may help.

It appears that MS Explorer reads JavaScripts embedded on a page before they are actually called. This results in error messages, because some objects may not yet exist. Ignore the error messages. The objects will exist before I use them, (if I have done my programming correctly :-) ).

MS Explorer does not do image sizing on-the-fly correctly. When I replace an image with an image of a different size, instead of resizing the image to the dimesions I specify, it shifts the layout of the page around. The fix is to use Netscape instead.

I have written JavaScript which opens and closes auxiliary windows of different sizes. If your window manager program cannot handle it, it will give you an error message when it cannot find the window I refer to. It should continue, however, and you will miss only some figure captions or neat, non-essential pictures, or marginal notes.

Animated images cause some versions of some Browsers to continually display the loading sign. If this irritates you, or if you would like to see what is REALLY on the Status Line (the border at the bottom of the Browser), click the 'stop' button several times until it stops. That will probably also stop the animations, however.

If the animated images run through only a few frames and then stop, your cache may be full. If you have a browser which normally does handle animations, then try flushing the cache.

If the images or layout appear discombobolated, try widening the window. Drag the window edge with the mouse until all the horizontal bars are well cleared and there is no horizontal scroll bar.

If some strange symbols appear in the middle of text, maybe your Browser cannot find the correct fonts. For example, my address contains the German character ü, and I also use the ISO 8859-1 character ©. If the preceeding sentence looks strange, you probably have to modify your font path. Try a statement of the form xset +fp whereever-they-are in your .cshrc file. Some Browsers, however, cannot handle the extended character set.

If a large image appears incomplete, and your Browser claims it is done, maybe the cache is full. Try Reload. If that does not help, try flushing the cache. In Netscape, where it seems particularly to be a problem, it is under Options then Network Preferences .

Some Browser versions have a bug in processing lists, resulting in a blank line through an image on the same line as the end of the list. Reload or Refresh usually fixes it.

If you are using a version of Mosaic which supports background color, but not background images, and the text is illegible, try turning off the X Resource in your .Xdefaults file

Mosaic*bodyColors:False

You will then have to exit Mosaic, run
xrdb .Xdefaults
and restart Mosaic, for the change to take effect.

Some Browsers cannot process certain (or all) animated images. In that case, you should see just one frame, but some Browsers may show you a mess.

Sometimes the images come out with blocks of pixels missing, particularly when running on a pc platform. Try clicking on Refresh. If that does not help, try hitting Reload.

On some combinations of Systems and Browsers, the transparency of images is not handled correctly. The transparency color of GIF's is sometimes set by Netscape to black, which particularly does not improve the appearance of black and white images. This appears to be a problem when running on a pc under Windows with only 16 colors. if the background is not one of the 16 primary colors. Sometimes Mosaic uses the background color from the preceding page, or whereever the image was first used. Try Refresh and Reload as above, several times if necessary.

Some Browsers cannot handle certain types of image files. For example, earlier versions of Mosaic cannot handle inlined JPEG files. The image is replaced by a default icon. If you really want to see the image, look at the source ( in Mosaic, by clicking on View Source in the File menu) to find out what the URL of the image file is. Then Open that URL. Mosaic will spawn an external viewer with just the image.

Under some AOL Browsers, some file names for image files cause problems. I know nothing about AOL browsers.

Sorry, I know nothing about pc's.

More suggestions to come.

Fly on -