Main body text not showing up sometimes

[kathsta]

I've got a wierd problem happening on all my website pages. Sometimes when the pages load, the text on them, which is black, does not show up - but if you click on the page anywhere, or look at a different tabbed page, then back to the website page, the text miraculously shows up.

I checked and double checked all the text colour settings to ensure that the only text colours are black for main text, green for some text and red for warnings and alerts - I'm sure something has been overlooked to be causing this odd text load problem and would really appreciate some advice or suggestions?

Thanks - Kathy.
Website is www.naturalsoap.com.au

[Kim]

What browser are you using?

[kathsta]

Hi Kim,

I'm using IE - have tried to view site on both IE 7 and 6, both get the same problem

thanks in advance,
Kathy.

[Kim]

What did you use to edit this?

<div id="indexDefaultMainContent" class="content"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><style type="text/css"></style><script type="text/javascript"></script><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript"></script><font face="verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" align="left"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8.5pt; COLOR: #2c3e49; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><img hspace="0" src="http://www.naturalsoap.com.au/shop/images/botanicals.jpg" align="middle" border="0" /><br /><br />Nestled in the beautiful Hawkesbury Valley of NSW, we at ReVitalize have created a truly luxurious range of natural, handmade soaps and skincare products, unlocking the secret to healthy, radiant skin. Combining some of the most exotic ingredients known in the botanical world, and always of the highest quality, our innovative products can help nourish and care for your skin, the best way possible – naturally. <br /><br /><img hspace="0" src="http://www.naturalsoap.com.au/shop/images/freeship.jpg" align="middle" border="0" /><br /><br /></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 8.5pt; COLOR: #2c3e49; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">We invite you to indulge in our exclusively deluxe natural soaps, moisturizing creams, replenishing body lotions and more, each one made with skin loving organic oils, rich nourishing plant butters, traditional skin care herbs and pure essential oils, to help care for your skin while also delighting your senses. Spoil yourself today!<br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #66cc66; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Christmas Holidays:</span></strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #66cc66; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> We will be closed from Monday the 22nd of December to the 5th of January, 2009. Orders can still be placed during this time, but they will not be sent out till we re-open. We wish all our customers a very safe and happy Christmas, and a wonderful New Year!<br /><br /></span></span></p></font></div>

It has several html validation errors - Clean it up and I'll bet you have fewer problems.

[kathsta]

Hi Kim,

I use DreamWeaver for my editing, since I'm still learning coding I'm not suprised I've messed up somewhere - I knew it would be something I've overlooked or not done correctly lol! How exactly do I 'Clean it up'?

Thanks in advance,
Kathy - www.naturalsoap.com.au

[rstevenson]

It's going to be very hard for you to get clean, valid code out of Dreamweaver -- or any other visual editor. If you have the latest version, it does a better job than it used to, but still not good. Check its preferences to ensure you're getting the best possible code out of it.

But better yet, learn HTML and CSS so you can edit the code in a text editor.

To clean it up, run the page through a validator -- the one at w3.org is good -- and read the resulting report. Then edit (not in Dreamweaver) the code to fix the problems.

I assume you're using DW to create things like product descriptions and the text you put into the define_pages_editor? If so, make sure you're copying and pasting only the part you need. In the sample that Kim copied above there is a lot of extraneous material above the first bit of useful text.

HTH

Rob

PS
Nice looking site. ;-)

[kathsta]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for that :)

I'd been recomended to use dreamweaver from a website developer I know - so had taken his advice as face value.

I'll play with the coding today, so hopefully I can work it all out before I re-open the business on Monday after my xmas break!

Will the wonky html coding that's showing in the define_main_page be what's causing text to not show up on page loads though - that's what I need to make sure is fixed...

Cheers,
Kathy - www.naturalsoap.com.au

[rstevenson]

Will the wonky html coding that's showing in the define_main_page be what's causing text to not show up on page loads though - that's what I need to make sure is fixed...

Very likely yes, that's the problem. Browsers try hard to deal with bad code, but they have their limits.

Rob

[kathsta]

Hi Rob,

I got a copy of a html editor that promised 'clean code' called Altova StyleVison, played with the code and tags that Kim had said needed revision, then had it checked and it came back as fine. I uploaded the correctly laid out (according to the editor I used anyway) up in the define_main_page file, and the problem still occurs on every page - sometimes the text will show, be in the index page, category listings, or product info pages, but most times the normal text does not show up untill you double click in the text area, and voila there it is

This is verrrrry frustrating as I don't know what to be doing to fix it.

Cheers,
Kathy

[kathsta]

Hmm - my problem seems to be a bug with IE7, as I just went to another comp still using IE6 and everything showed up totally normally. I did some googling on IE7 and dissapearing text, and found that it's a common bug.

So, does anyone know of a CSS code I can add to fix this rotten bug?

Thanks in advance,
Kathy - www.naturalsoap.com.au