Air Canada which has the absolutely worst user interface imaginable has just emailed me a reservation confirmation in what seems to be something called css format. I tried renaming it with extensions html, ps, pdf, doc, and css. The first four either refused to display it or did so with all the codes built in, while the latter is not associated with any program. Google gives loads of information on css format, but nothing gives a clue as to what you read it with. Can anyone tell me?
This seems to me like something is seriously wrong with the air canada system. A CSS file is not appropriate for any kind of content-containing document, like a reservation confirmation.
A CSS file, basically, only contains instructions about how to format, present, and display another document. Nothing else. If you’ve got a CSS document from air canada… well, either they’re using a very nonstandard css extension, or something’s gone very wrong. Contact them and let them know about this - it’s not a kind of document that you should be expected to read.
Actually, probably a good double-check would be to load it into notepad or any other kind of plain text editor, and surf through the codes displayed there for a moment. If there’s any actual content among the formatting codes, it shouldn’t be too hard to spot. Otherwise - big error on air canada’s part.
Right click the file, and when the context menu opens up, click the selection that says “Open with.”
From the options, choose Notepad, Wordpad, or some other text reader.
I’m a bit confused, though, as to why they would send you a confirmation as a CSS (cascading style sheet) file.
It has content all right, if you can wade through the formatting instructions. I can open it in wordpad, even as an html file, but I cannot get rid of all the garbage. Somewhere in all that garbage is a reservation confirmation, that much is clear, but what isn’t clear is what program is required to respond to the formatting, not just show it.
Air Canada has the most unfriendly UI I have ever seen. Bar none.
It has content all right, if you can wade through the formatting instructions. I can open it in wordpad, even as an html file, but I cannot get rid of all the garbage. Somewhere in all that garbage is a reservation confirmation, that much is clear, but what isn’t clear is what program is required to respond to the formatting, not just show it.
Air Canada has the most unfriendly UI I have ever seen. Bar none.
Here is how it starts:
/* CSS Document */ body { margin: 15px; } body, td, td th, input, th,
select, textarea, pre{ font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 10px; color: #333; } em{ font-style: normal; } a
img, img{ border: none; } sup { vertical-align: top; } th { text-align:
left; } .left{ float: left; } .center{ text-align: center; } .right{
float: right; } #wrapper.email{ width: 627px; margin: 0; } #content{
width: 100%; margin: 0; } #business{ margin: 0; float: none; clear:
right; } #terms.email{ width: 100%; padding: 12px 0 6px 0; text-align:
justify; } #airTerms{ width: 611px; margin: 12px 0 6px 0; text-align:
justify ! important; border-bottom: none; padding: 0; } #airTerms table{
margin: 0 ! important; } #airTerms td{ background-color: #FFF;
text-align: left ! important; height: 22px; padding: 0 8px 0 0 !
It goes on for 225 lines like this, then comes about 75 lines in clear that gives the actual confirmation. It starts:
****** PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL ******
[aclogo_h.gif]
Confirmation
Your passenger information has been successfully updated
Your Seat Selection is confirmed
Please print this confirmation
Thank you for choosing Air Canada and we look forward to welcoming you on
board.
Booking Information
Booking Reference: N2TDA5
Customer Care
AIRCANADA.COM WEBSITE ASSISTANCE
1-888-712-7786
FLIGHT ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES
1-888-422-7533
This is your confirmation Main Contact:
FileMaker has a GetAsCSS function for converting a formatted field to CSS code, and so I’ve had opportunity to work with it a bit. A file of that nature (which is probably what they sent you, not the cascading style sheet itself but stuff like this?) —
<SPAN STYLE= “” >Hello, </SPAN>
<SPAN STYLE= “font-weight: bold;” >dopers</SPAN>
<SPAN STYLE= “” >, </SPAN>
<SPAN STYLE= “color: #DD0000;” >color me red<BR><BR>align me in the middle<BR></SPAN>
<SPAN STYLE= “color: #DD0000;text-decoration:underline;text-align: center;” >underline me<BR></SPAN>
<SPAN STYLE= “font-size: 24px;color: #DD0000;text-align: center;” >BIG TEXT<BR></SPAN>
<SPAN STYLE= “font-size: 24px;color: #FF0099;text-align: center;” >purple</SPAN>
Copy and paste that mess into a plain text editor like BBEdit or Notepad and save it with extension “.html” and open it in a web browser and it Looks like this
