The PatternSkin does not show a horizontal scrollbar if the text is wide, such as a wide table. That is, it is not possible to view some content. See noscroll.png, the Extension column is not accessible.

Using Firefox 1.0.7 on Windows XP.

PTh

Isn't the table scrollbar is at the bottom of the table?

AC

No, there is no scrollbar. See noscroll2.png at bottom.

PTh

MichaelDaum has provided a fix for the table scrolling some time back. Don't know why it doesn't work now.

AC

See related Item1063, Item1092

-- PTh

Sames happens with IE 6.0.2600 on Windows XP.

This is a usability issue.

-- PTh

This item needs more attention, raising to Urgent.

-- PTh

I have added a overflow:auto to the patternMainContents div. On Safari this makes the difference, but I still have to test on other browsers.

AC

On Win XP with FF 1.0.7 it is now accessible, I can see a horizontal scrollbar if I scroll to the bottom of the page.

While it is possible to access all content it is still confusing to users since the horizontal scrollbar is not visible if the content is long. Is it possible to use the scrollbar of the browser window instead of the main topic pane? That way the scrollbar is always accessible, e.g. without scrolling to the bottom.

-- PTh

No, that's not possible, AFAIK. A window scrollbar would scroll the complete window, but what you want is scrolling only the content area. Admitted, having the scrollbar at the bottom to scroll in stuff that leaps out somewhere at the bottom would result in (1) scrolling down to get the horizontal scrollbar (2) scroll right an estimated amount (3) scroll up to have a look if the content is now visible (4) repeat (1-3) until you see your content (or surf somewhere else if your can't stand the annoyance). The only solution is to add an overflow div around the source of the view being expanded and otherwise truncate it so that the rest of the content does not suffer. Verbatims do that already. Images don't, so they should be truncated (overflow:hiddden). There is, however, the possibility to generate a <div style="overflow:auto"> <img.../> </div> around every hyperlink with an image url (like http//...jpg). But there shouldn't be any extra "intelligence" for normal img tags in the main content area.

-- MD

I agree it would be better to mimic the behavior of classic skin: to scroll the whole page.

It is a stylesheet thing: if I view WebChanges with style sheets disabled, I get to see a bottom window scrollbar.

AC

SVN 8195 fixes one problem, but introduces a new one: the action buttons top right move out of sight. But in any case this is better for wide content.

AC

This is much better now, thanks for finding a fix in time! Out of sight action buttons is not ideal, but it is not severe. I think Dakar release can be shipped with this in case there is no fix in time. Reclassifying from "Urgent" to "Normal".

-- PTh

There is a way to keep the buttons in the window. The buttons (and breadcrumb and revinfo) then needs to be moved out of the table, or rephrased, the table should start with the topic text. But that means that the left bar should be split in two, with a quite high web indicator outside of the table, and the rest of the left bar inside.

AC

As mentioned before, this is good enough to go, but here are two desigbn variants on having title bar of sidebar and topic links outside of the main table: Image2.gif, Image3.gif. Food for thought.

-- PTh

Have a look at http://visiblearea.com/devtwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome and big table test with a new table design. Not tested yet.

AC

Looks good. Make sure that it looks OK if BROADCASTMESSAGE is enabled. FYI, the topic links sometimes wrap around, making it look odd.

-- PTh

• My idea was to put the BROADCASTMESSAGE above the topic text
• Where are the wrapping topic links?

AC

Good point on BROADCASTMESSAGE

On wrap, see Image8.gif.

-- PTh

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The buttons wrap when the screen is small. What other situation does wrapping occur?

AC

If screen is small and/or font is big and/or breadcrumb is big. Better to specify { white-space: nowrap } for the topic links.

-- PTh

nowrap does not work here: the buttons are right-floating block-level elements. --AC

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Reading back through the comments here I believe an adequate resolution has been reached. if there are still problems, please re-open.

CC

Filed a new bug Item1430

MD.