Strange Problem with Hidden Text in IE

[elwell]

Hi, I've never seen a problem like this before. In IE7 and IE6 (haven't tested other version yet) most of the text on this page (and a few others on the site is hidden UNTIL YOU HIGHLIGHT IT). I'm guessing this has something to do with the downloaded google fonts. Any help is appreciated. Let me know if you have questions.

One of the problem pages: http://www.christopherelwell.com/index.php?page=play

[toicontien]

Each HTML tag on the page, once parsed into memory, has a style property called "hasLayout". This little bugger is the cause and solution to most layout issues in Internet Explorer.

Try adding this to the style declaration for #bottomHalf:

#bottomHalf {
    /* your existing styles */
    zoom: 1;
}

This will trigger "hasLayout" for that element.

[elwell]

Oh wow, that works. Thanks. Never heard of that... Why does it needed for IE? Do other browsers assume zoom=1?

[toicontien]

The zoom property was proprietary to Internet Explorer, however other browsers, such as Chrome, support this property now. I haven't checked lately, but the CSS3 spec might include this property, and if not, I wouldn't be surprised is it was rolled into the next CSS spec.

Reading the MSDN article I linked to in a previous post should help clear things up. Basically, IE prior to version 8 has two modes for rendering DOM nodes, probably stemming from the days when computers were much slower. One method is probably quicker and more memory efficient, but less accurate, whereas the other method (hasLayout) is probably more processor intensive and accurate.

Just my take on why a single element can be rendered with, or without layout. It's kind of a crap shoot whether or not invoking hasLayout on an element fixes rendering issues. It's just something you've got to play around with. And sometimes invoking hasLayout actually causes problems.

[nadyav07]

Trying to apply zoom=1 fix, but it doesn't help. Which html element should I apply this style to? I have disappearing text in IE under Facebook icon (at the bottom) on http://dvmarina.com/index.php page.

Thank you very much in advance.

[marketingboss]

I didn't know that the zoom property was proprietary to Internet Explorer - I say people should upgrade their web browsers by moving to Chrome Firefox or Safari.