IE6 Print Causing Reproducable Crash Due to CSS/HTML Problem

I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex web page.

I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find an IE6
or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which to post.
If anyone can point me to a more appropriate managed newsgroup I'd appreciate
it (it must be a managed newsgroup as I have an MSDN subscription and they
guarantee a 2 day response in managed newsgroups).

One of my colleagues has already tried posting the problem to the public
MSDN forums with no luck, his post can be found here:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2968905&SiteID=1

The problem is this; we generate a large webpage (XHTML/CSS) using XML and
XSLT. The page has a separate stylesheet for printed media which is used to
hide some items on the page using display:none. When attempting to print the
page using IE6 it crashes the browser.

We have around 400 internal users who experience the problem and have also
had many reports from our customers as well.

I can 'fix' the problem on a case-by-case basis by tweaking the CSS but this
doesn't properly resolve the problem.

I have posted 2 examples at the following URL:

http://www.colinbaker.me.uk/ie6crash/

I'd really appreciate it if someone could take a look and work out what's
going on.

Thanks in advance,

Colin

Bob
Fri Apr 25 07:55:26 CDT 2008

Colin Baker wrote:
> I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex
> web page.
>
> I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find
> an IE6
> or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which to
> post.

HTML/CSS questions will get better response in one of the newsgroups
devoted
to those topics (http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33584039).
--
Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get a
quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.

Colmeister
Fri Apr 25 08:47:02 CDT 2008

Thanks Bob but I think you misunderstood me.

I need to post this somewhere on the Microsoft Managed Newsgroup because I
have an MSDN Subscription and under these conditions they supposedly
guarantee an answer in 2 working days. Posting to Google Groups is no good
and is, in fact, what my colleague already tried.

Thanks,

Colin


"Bob Barrows [MVP]" wrote:

> Colin Baker wrote:
> > I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex
> > web page.
> >
> > I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find
> > an IE6
> > or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which to
> > post.
>
> HTML/CSS questions will get better response in one of the newsgroups
> devoted
> to those topics (http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33584039).
> --
> Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
> Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
> header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get a
> quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.
>
>
>

Bob
Fri Apr 25 08:57:44 CDT 2008

I suspect IE6 is out of support 9can somebody verify that for me? I'm
not sure) so the promise of a response within 2 days may not apply. But
good luck. I hope you get an answer.
Colin Baker wrote:
> Thanks Bob but I think you misunderstood me.
>
> I need to post this somewhere on the Microsoft Managed Newsgroup
> because I have an MSDN Subscription and under these conditions they
> supposedly guarantee an answer in 2 working days. Posting to Google
> Groups is no good and is, in fact, what my colleague already tried.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Colin
>
>
> "Bob Barrows [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Colin Baker wrote:
>>> I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex
>>> web page.
>>>
>>> I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find
>>> an IE6
>>> or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which to
>>> post.
>>
>> HTML/CSS questions will get better response in one of the newsgroups
>> devoted
>> to those topics (http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33584039).
>> --
>> Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
>> Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
>> header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get
>> a quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.

--
Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get a
quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.

Bob
Fri Apr 25 08:59:08 CDT 2008

PS. I was posting a list of what should be relevant groups, not
suggesting you post via google groups. Look for the relevant groups in
the toc of the web interface you are using. Again, if none apply, good
luck.

Colin Baker wrote:
> Thanks Bob but I think you misunderstood me.
>
> I need to post this somewhere on the Microsoft Managed Newsgroup
> because I have an MSDN Subscription and under these conditions they
> supposedly guarantee an answer in 2 working days. Posting to Google
> Groups is no good and is, in fact, what my colleague already tried.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Colin
>
>
> "Bob Barrows [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Colin Baker wrote:
>>> I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex
>>> web page.
>>>
>>> I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find
>>> an IE6
>>> or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which to
>>> post.
>>
>> HTML/CSS questions will get better response in one of the newsgroups
>> devoted
>> to those topics (http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33584039).
>> --
>> Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
>> Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
>> header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get
>> a quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.

--
Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get a
quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.

Bob
Fri Apr 25 09:05:52 CDT 2008

Something else just occurred to me: depending on the subscription level
you have, you may have a free support call available. Check the msdn
site for details.
Colin Baker wrote:
> Thanks Bob but I think you misunderstood me.
>
> I need to post this somewhere on the Microsoft Managed Newsgroup
> because I have an MSDN Subscription and under these conditions they
> supposedly guarantee an answer in 2 working days. Posting to Google
> Groups is no good and is, in fact, what my colleague already tried.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Colin
>
>
> "Bob Barrows [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Colin Baker wrote:
>>> I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex
>>> web page.
>>>
>>> I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find
>>> an IE6
>>> or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which to
>>> post.
>>
>> HTML/CSS questions will get better response in one of the newsgroups
>> devoted
>> to those topics (http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=33584039).
>> --
>> Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
>> Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
>> header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get
>> a quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.

--
Microsoft MVP -- ASP/ASP.NET
Please reply to the newsgroup. The email account listed in my From
header is my spam trap, so I don't check it very often. You will get a
quicker response by posting to the newsgroup.

Neil
Fri Apr 25 13:42:31 CDT 2008

Recently, Colin Baker <Colmeister@newsgroup.nospam> posted:

> I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex
> web page.
>
> I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find
> an IE6
> or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which to
> post.
> If anyone can point me to a more appropriate managed newsgroup I'd
> appreciate it (it must be a managed newsgroup as I have an MSDN
> subscription and they guarantee a 2 day response in managed
> newsgroups).
>
I don't know managed from unmanaged groups, but you may have better luck
posting to an IE6 group, such as:

microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser

Best,

Neil

Adrienne
Sun May 04 20:30:25 CDT 2008

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed =?Utf-8?B?Q29saW4gQmFrZXI=?=
<Colmeister@newsgroup.nospam> writing in
news:B87EBDCC-7190-48F3-81A8-9C3F4B919CDD@microsoft.com:

> I have a problem with IE crashing when attempting to print a complex
> web page.
>
> I know this newsgroup is for general ASP questions but I can't find an
> IE6 or general IE discussion group in the managed newsgroups in which
> to post. If anyone can point me to a more appropriate managed
> newsgroup I'd appreciate it (it must be a managed newsgroup as I have
> an MSDN subscription and they guarantee a 2 day response in managed
> newsgroups).
>
> One of my colleagues has already tried posting the problem to the
> public MSDN forums with no luck, his post can be found here:
>
> http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2968905&SiteID=1
>
> The problem is this; we generate a large webpage (XHTML/CSS) using XML
> and XSLT. The page has a separate stylesheet for printed media which
> is used to hide some items on the page using display:none. When
> attempting to print the page using IE6 it crashes the browser.
>
> We have around 400 internal users who experience the problem and have
> also had many reports from our customers as well.
>
> I can 'fix' the problem on a case-by-case basis by tweaking the CSS
> but this doesn't properly resolve the problem.
>
> I have posted 2 examples at the following URL:
>
> http://www.colinbaker.me.uk/ie6crash/
>
> I'd really appreciate it if someone could take a look and work out
> what's going on.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Colin

The page (example1) validates transitional. Good. It's also 944 lines
long. That may be part of the problem.

Try removing some of the nested tables and replace them with floated
divs. Eg:
<div>
<div class="floatleft">
Supplier
</div>
<div>
Address<br>
City<br>
Country
</div>
</div>

Try using a definition list for the client information (you can style it
to float the dd) eg:
<dl>
<dt>Clients</dt><dd>Mr XXX</dd>
<dt>Arrival</dt><dd>December 21, 2012</dd>
</dl>

A lot of times, if you use semantic markup, you can reduce lines of
markup, which might be better.

You might also want to validate the CSS, there are two errors. You
could also try putting the print stylesheet into an existing stylesheet,
eg:

@media screen {
body {font-size:100%}
}
@media print {
body {font-size:10pt}
}

--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share