# Problem viewing Cecil's columns with Opera **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 20, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819 "2003-01-20T16:56:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/1 "2003-01-20T16:56:51Z")
When I try to read one of Cecil’s columns, his answer, as well as the question itself, is bolded. This wouldn’t be a problem except that the answer portion doesn’t have the increased space between letters that bold requires. It’s kind of tough to explain, but imagine making every character 2 pixels wider without a corresponding increase of space between letters. At the start of the line, thetextlookskindoflikethis, but by the end, letters are actually overlapping each other, making it impossible to read. Does anyone else have this problem, and if so, is there a fix? P.S. I know that Opera tends to be one of the “stricter” browsers, so if there’s a minor coding problem, it won’t ignore it or automatically fix it like IE. This could be the cause. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/2 "2003-01-20T17:41:56Z")
I’m having the same problem (Opera 7 Beta 2 on WinXP). For the moment, you can use View-\>Source to read the text of the column. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/3 "2003-01-20T18:11:02Z")
They look fine to me – Opera 6.0 on Win2K Pro. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/4 "2003-01-20T19:14:36Z")
I can’t see anything in the coding that would cause this. They don’t even use anything particularly tricky, like style sheets. Hmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/5 "2003-01-20T19:21:17Z")
Forgot to mention this - on my system, some columns render fine while others don’t. For example, the [Grape Nuts](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_147.html) column renders as the OP described, but the [Lost Cosmonauts](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030117.html) one works fine. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/6 "2003-01-20T20:12:30Z")
Same with me Mister V–some okay, some not. It’s clearly something funky with either Opera or the web page, or both. I might email Opera tech support next. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/7 "2003-01-21T11:41:13Z")
I just checked with IE, the question part of the (all?) columns is supposed to appear bolded, isn’t it? I always assumed they’ve somewhen changed the layout. Both the “cosmonauts” and “grapenuts” column don’t display correctly in Opera(-6 for me). I see their question as plain text. It’s the uh… ‘creative’ nesting of tags in some of the columns. Here’s their structure in the grapenuts column: **\** (image) **\Dear Cecil:\ \**(question)**\Cecil replies:**(answer)**\** And in the cosmonauts column: **\** (image) **\Dear Cecil:\\ \ \**(question)**\\ \ Cecil replies:**(answer)**\** In contrast, the [Louie Louie](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_316.html) column looks right: **\\Dear Cecil:** (question) \*\*\ \*\* (answer) **\** (formatting done with \s) It’s not defined how a browser should handle the improperly overlapping \ and \ tags. Some get more confused than others. IE seems to carry unclosed tags over into the next one, Opera6 has different precedences and assumes them closed with the next element. And from what **Opus1** describes, poor Opera7’s rendering engine tries to use the font spacing from the one and the style from the other. That _is_ strange. Does an admin read this? Whoever is responsible for the column page layout, I \ly suggest to disentangle the code (at least in future columns). \ly, get it? I kill myself. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/8 "2003-01-22T05:28:08Z")
Please remember that the columns, (some of them close to 30 years old and originally written by candlelight with a quill pen) have been issued through various types of media over the years, including the first years of online where we were on AOL and all the stuff had to be rendered in whatever the heck that program was . . . Rainman? Yeah! (Geez, I thought I’d never forget that one.) Consistency has not always been our strong point; quick and dirty is often the order of the day. All this being said, let’s see if we can’t do a better job with bringing our older pages up to newer specs. We are sorry your experience has not always been a good one. your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-viewing-cecils-columns-with-opera/149819/9 "2003-01-23T16:11:43Z")
I have a problem viewing Cecil’s columns with Oprah too. She always gets in the way of the monitor, and brings that Dr. Phil guy along too. It gets really annoying.