IE incompatible ? Image size.

Question

Hi,
I know very little about HTML, CSS and the like but as a photographer I upload gallery webs all the time for clients etc. I generate these in PS CS2 or iView MediaPro and then upload to my server (shared web hosting).
With a current project requiring a 'site' type environment I decided to try iWeb. Before visiting this site please note that due to image sizes with iWeb it's a bit on the heavy side and if you're using IE on a PC BEWARE of crashes! Safari may even crash as has done with me.
http://www.kura-images.com/camping
Remarks and problems :
1. As you can see my site does not resemble any iWeb template - using the 'modern' template I basically threw everything away and designed from scratch. It's a great WYSIWYG appli in that sense - no code - just drag and drop, resize, add some effects etc. I published regulary to a folder as a way of double checking but was impressed with the 100% WYSIWYG capability of iWeb
2. Image size is a MAJOR problem. My concerns are specifically with the gallery pages generated from the photo page temps. Thumbnails at 16ko is too big and the motor that generates the large image files uses a single parameter (800pixels largest dimension) that cannot be changed in any pref settings etc. It also uses a compression factor which is a tad too high. Using Image Ready or the PS gallery web function (driven by Image Ready) I can get as good visual quality for my web-optimised JPEGS for 65% of the file size.
Note : I tried this file swap as a test
I changed one image in the folder for the "activités" page (activities_008) - I made a smaller thumbnail in ImageReady and created a 600pixel version of the large file; I replaced the images in the folder with these and checked the site. The thumb appears no problem in a smaller size (btw 6ko vs 16ko - that's a big diff when you apply it to 250 images !). SlideshowJS however has instructions to open the image at main size as determined by the slideshow index file creation generated by iWeb. And that's written as 800pixels. So on opening the 600 pixel image I'd replaced, slideshowJS opened it to 800pixels (not pretty). The only way to rectify that was to go into the source code in the relevant 'activités' js file, find the codeline for the image 008 and change the values manually. And I'd have to do that with 250 line of code ! That rather defeats the prupose of having a nice easy application to produce your galleries.
3. Upload to my server via Transmit was trouble-free. No problems publishing to a non .mac server.
4. Problem with the page titles. The names you give to pages determines the URL. Any spaces means you get the %20 thing and if, like me, you're writing in French the accents mean that iWeb has to get around the problem in a different, and not very practical, way. iWeb creates a random character line as a name, and uses that as the URL for pages where accents appear in the title. When the assets and index page are published those long character names appear on the index file and folder.
I also think that may lead to compatability issues with certain servers.
5. But here's the BIG PROBLEM !
I had 4 people with PC's and IE (God bless 'em) check out the site. 2 reported repeated crashes of IE (unexpectedly quit exe. error). No problems with the homepage - just when clicking on some of the photo pages. What is really strange is that neither had problems when accessing the 'La Soirée' page, but both had problems with all the others. Apparently the crash came after IE tried to load the page, succeeded in loading a few thumbnails and then stopped and crashed 5-10secs later.
6. EVEN WORSE !
I have gone back to my site several times, emptying Safari cache each time, and have succeded in stalling definitively Safari's attempts to load certain pages. Just stops with partial page upload. I then have to quit Safari and re-open to be able to access any web page (even other sites). Sometimes it's OK, sometimes not.
This site goes officially live on wednesday morning but for now it's a no-goer. Just too erratic and not IE compatible.
PLEASE, any suggestions ?
Many thanks in advance
Peter
G5 2Ghz   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

Answer 1

4. Problem with the page titles. The names you give
to pages determines the URL. Any spaces means you get
the %20 thing and if, like me, you're writing in
French the accents mean that iWeb has to get around
the problem in a different, and not very practical,
way. iWeb creates a random character line as a name,
and uses that as the URL for pages where accents
appear in the title. When the assets and index page
are published those long character names appear on
the index file and folder.
I also think that may lead to compatability issues
with certain servers.
Yes, it is best to avoid spaces and accents and special characters if you can. If you must have them in your navigation links, then don't use the iWeb nav bar. Instead give your pages very short simple names with the Inspector, uncheck the box for "include in nav bar," and just create ordinary hyperlinks for page navigation. I don't know if this will help with IE compatibility, but it can't hurt.