This is about your resolutions.

No, I don't mean the New Year promises to be a better person, go on a diet and lose 100 lbs before the end of February, but the resolutions, that hopefully, enable you to read this message on your monitor.

OK I admit this is a boring subject but as a dentist, it's one that I should know something about. 

Communicating via the Internet seems to be fraught with problems. I get email from entrepreneurs who assume that I have already installed the character set that's common to Lower Gorgolia and then expect me to understand their copy about the best new program since caterpillars on toast.

Apart from those extremes, there is the constant squabbling over "who" has the "correct" computer settings. Too wide, too long, too small, too large, etc

With about 10 different monitor sizes from 10" through to 21", about 5 common resolutions from 640x480 through 1600x1200 and about 10 possible 
settings for magnifying the on-screen image in Windows, you have about 500 possible user settings!  And that's only on PCs using Internet Explorer! 

As an editor of any material presented on the Internet you have a veritable "Mission Impossible" when it comes to satisfying all your readers at once, particularly when it comes to presenting text in "the right size"!

There is a method available if you can afford it. The top notch software that "sniffs" the visitor's browser to see what he is using, before it sends him the appropriate files, tailor-made for the visitor's settings.

The fact is, nearly every reader thinks he has discovered the Holy Grail in screen settings and refuses, or doesn't know how, to adjust his or her machine to read material presented by editors who, in their opinion, have questionable skills and suspect motives. 

In fact, I'm sure that most computer users blame the stupid editor for producing an unreadable, funny layout, wrong sized, horribly colored documents without giving any consideration at all, to the possibility that their own computer settings could be part of the problem.

I'm more than happy to communicate and read the opinions of my peers who are literate enough to put finger to keyboard and write something that makes 
sense. 

What I can't stand, is when their text is presented in Jumbo 48 or Bacteria 6. How do they expect me to read that stuff? After all, my computer has the correct settings, and they send me this!.

Here's a little experiment for you. Use your browser controls to alter the text size on your monitor.

In Internet Explorer: 
go to "View" and choose "Text size", 
In Netscape: use the key strokes Ctrl+ [  or Ctrl+ ] .

Try the smallest size and then the largest text sizes.
You will be surprised at the results, particularly with Netscape the results are astonishing!

You may decide after all, that your settings are not the correct ones or at least accept that the settings of some stranger's computer may also be correct ..?

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Dr John Flynn publishes a monthly HTML ezine called:
"The Xerostar Times" and his motto is:
"caring for creative people"
You can subscribe at: 
http://www.xerotron.com/cgi-bin/mail/mail.cgi
His free eBook "The Xerotron Story" is available at:
http://midi-ebooks.com 
mailto: xerostar@iinet.net.au

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