bug 517 - Internet Explorer Zoom doesn't always work

Issue: #517
Affects: IE7, IE8, IE9, IE10 Preview

Ever since Internet Explorer supported zooming page content in the browser there have been issues with the Zoom feature.

In IE7 it was rough and it was particularly bad scaling form elements unequally not to mention framesets were a disaster.  In IE8 things got much better and the scaling was much more predictable.

However there are 4 issues with Zoom in IE to this day that drive developers and users alike bonkers.

1.) The default keyboard shortcut of [CTRL] + [0], [CTRL] + [-], and [CTRL] + [+]  to adjust the zoom do NOT work if you use the numberpad keys.

2.) The zoom isn't a graceful increase when zooming in 5% at a time like in other browsers.  IE's first "step" is a whopping 125%!  As developers this isn't always easy to accommodate gracefully... many users just want to bump up the zoom a "notch" and 125% is overkill.

3.) The performance of a web page drastically decreases when zoomed in to the point that on heavy web pages the site becomes almost unusable - Most corporate web applications do not support use of Zoom in IE as a result.

4.) Zoom isn't applied to everything! Oh sure, you probably knew that radio buttons don't scale but did you know that if you have any dialog windows created using Microsoft's proprietary showModalDialog() or showModelessDialog() methods that the content inside them completely ignores the users request to have the content zoomed.

Does your site/application support the Zoom feature in IE? Have you seen how it behaves compared to other browsers?

Note: The Modal, and Modeless dialogs in Internet Explorer have been deprecated in IE10 Metro Mode thus if you were still using them for some strange reason it is time to update your code!

 

Known Workarounds: None.

Related Issues: None.
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Bug or Feature - Round Six

Round Six Enabling the non-Disabled.

Other rounds: [One|Two|Three|Four|Five|Six]

We're back again with another round of "Bug or Feature?" highlighting a particular behavior in one or more browsers, that, well, could be a Bug, or it could be a Feature... we'll open up the comments for your vote and opinion.

Alright, what's today's "Bug or Feature"?

Synopsis:
Everyone knows that form elements [button|input|select|textarea] can be disabled to stop users interacting with them and to ensure they are not "successful controls" when a form is submitted.

So... what happens if you disable non form elements?

In most browsers... Just like you'd expect... absolutely nothing because it isn't supported.

However in IE there is a different behavior.

In IE when you set the disabled flag on an element it "kinda-sorta" disables all the child elements.

Example:

<div disabled="disabled">
  Email:
  <input type="text" name="foo" value="bar"/><br/>
  Send me spam:
  <input type="checkbox" name="baz" value="yes" checked="checked"/><br/>
</div>

So is it expected that the child elements render disabled? What if you wanted one or more of the children enabled?

Known Workarounds: None.

Related Issues: None.



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