Re: Internet Explorer & GIFs

When you save the Web page and then view it locally, the relative paths to 
the GIFs might no longer work.  e.g. if a tag on the page says
         <img src="picture.gif">
then when it's loaded from the server, it will load the picture.gif file 
from the same directory as the html file.  But when you've saved the page, 
the tag will attempt to load the picture from the same local directory as 
the saved HTML file, and that won't work if the image isn't 
there.  (Apologies for sounding condescending if you already knew this :) )

At least in IE 5.5, though, when you save a Web page, the default is to 
also save all the GIF images that are linked from that page, in a folder 
that gets created with the same name as the saved HTML file.  Internet 
Explorer also adjusts the tags in the source code of the page so that they 
will still work when you view the loaded HTML file.  I don't know if this 
feature is available in IE 5, if that's what you're using.

One other possibility is that the GIF is not actually a GIF file, and when 
IE loads it from the server, it adjusts accordingly to whatever type of 
file it actually is (e.g. a BMP or JPEG that just has a ".gif" name), but 
this doesn't happen when you load it locally.  If you have the GIF file 
saved locally, you could try opening it in Notepad to see if it really is a 
GIF file (it should have the letters "GIF" somewhere in the first three 
bytes of the file).

         -Bennett

At 09:05 AM 9/26/2001 -0400, Nathan Lyle wrote:
>Does anyone know anything about IE5+ not being able to display GIFs
>when viewing a page locally off the hard drive? My browser at work
>will view the GIFs fine if I move everything to the server and view it
>over the internet, but show only as broken icons when I try to view
>the pages locally.
>
>Doesn't seem to be page specific, happens for any page I try it on,
>and I can't seem to find anything in the preferences to toggle.
>(Always the first thing I check...) <smile>
>
>~Nathan Lyle   (The Tragic Comedian Poet)
>
>Email: natelyle(at)chartermi.net
>Phone: (906)485-4806
>   Web: www.nathanlyle.com
>
>"Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end." - Igor 
>Stravinsky


bennett(at)peacefire.org     http://www.peacefire.org
(425) 649 9024

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