Frequently Asked Questions
Bronstrup Consulting offers a wide array of internet and web marketing services, ranging from managed web hosting, to targeted ad campaign management. We receive numerous questions each week regarding the services we offer. The more common questions appear here, along with their answers.
Who maintains this FAQ?
This FAQ is maintained by none other than our very own owner and operator, Keith Bronstrup. That's right, I maintain it, all by myself! Actually, I have a lot of help; every question we receive gives me a chance to revise this FAQ! Most importantly, every question we receive gives us the opportunity to help out a fellow business.
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Where are you located? Do you still operate in Macomb, MI?
We're located in Parma, OH. We were once located in Macomb, MI, but that office closed in 2006, when I moved back to Ohio.
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I use Internet Explorer, your columns are all different lengths. Why?
The answer below applied to our previous site layout. While our current layout is not affected by this issue, we have left this question here because the information it contains is still relevant. Some redactions have been made and annotations have been added, in order to clarify our position on the subject of web standards and interoperability.
Rest assured that this issue in no way hinders your ability to access the content of this website. Our website
is designed to be accessible by every HTML browser, including text-only browsers and screen-readers for the blind.
This is purely a cosmetic issue caused by your browser misapplying some HTML rendering standards.
Redacted: The above text does not apply to this layout.
Internet Explorer is notorious for ignoring web standards, an issue that has been the subject of lawsuits in several countries. Many web developers perpetuate this problem by coding their websites with no regard for these standards, so that they display as intended in Internet Explorer; the result is that other browsers can't render their pages correctly.
The above statement does not apply to Internet Explorer 8. We have made note of the vast improvement Microsoft has made in their browser with this version.
Bronstrup Consulting holds a firm belief that standards should be adhered to and, so, we adhere to the XHTML 1.1 and CSS 2.1 standards, proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium, when designing our pages. Any browser which conforms to these standards, including Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari, among others, will be able to display these properly coded pages as intended.
We would like to, again, note that Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 does an excellent job of rendering standartds-compliant pages.
Internet Explorer 7 displays these pages correctly, with just little help, in the form of a supplemental stylesheet. Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6 don't support the CSS methods required to make multiple columns the same height; further, without its own supplemental stylesheet, these versions display the page grossly incorrectly.
The majority of the supplimental styles required for IE7/8 to render these pages correctly are the result of varying interpretations of whether margin and padding should increase the size of an element.
We could place a script on the page to automatically adjust the height of the columns for versions of Internet Explorer prior to version 7, and we may do so in the future, if we feel that there is significant demand for it.
Many sites do use such a script. We chose not to, primarily because the end result with any of the scripts we considered was jerky scrolling and unreliable rendering.
We feel that, as long as all of our content is accessible and readable in all browsers browsers, which it is, those users who care enough about the online experience to keep their browser up to date should be rewarded with a better experience. Therefore, we use XHTML 1.1 and CSS 2.1 to the fullest extent possible, allowing everyone to access our content, while providing users of standards compliant browsers with the best browsing experience possible.
This portion of this answer still applies fully; our stance on web standards and interoperability is unlikely to change at any point in the future.
ADDENDUM, November 4, 2009: In testing, we have identified an issue with the way in which Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 handles PNG image transarency. This issue causes Internet Explorer 7 to render pages which make use of PNG images containing transparency very slowly. As our current layout uses transparent PNG images very heavily, Internet Explorer 7 users may be adversely affected by this issue. On our testing system, Internet Explorer 7 takes nearly a full minute to render or refresh the page on screen. Since Internet Explorer 7 is the only version and, in fact, the only browser, which exhibits this issue, and due to the relatively small market share this browser has, we have chosen not to work around this issue.
The fact is that the majority of internet users, as of the time of this writing, still use Internet Explorer 6, and Microsoft is currently shipping Internet Explorer 8 and pushing an upgrade path from 6 to 8, bypassing 7 altogether. We feel that is is more important to focus our time and resources on supporting current, emerging, and actively used platforms, rather than platforms which never became widely used and have been abandoned by their vendor.
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What forms of payment does Bronstrup Consulting accept?
Bronstrup Consulting currently accepts all major credit cards, as well as direct funds transfers, through PayPal. You don't need a PayPal account to make a credit card payment through PayPal, though it does simplify invoicing and payment. If you are not comfortable using PayPal, we also accept personal and business checks, with some restrictions. We are always considering other payment options, but have yet to find anything we deem reasonable.
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I love your website design! Can I use it?
This question hits very close to home for me, as I spent days working to get the layout to look exactly the way I want it, creating a screen layout, a print-format layout and a layout specifically for handheld devices. I spent numerous hours tweaking the graphics to look just right, making sure everything lined up, even customizing the bullets on my lists. I even spent an hour customizing a CSS Reset to make sure every browser started off the same.
I put a lot of work into this layout and can't bring myself to just give it away. That doesn't mean you can't use it; contact me directly to discuss licensing of this layout, complete with custom graphics, a custom color scheme, and print and handheld layouts.
Sincerely,
Keith Bronstrup
Bronstrup
Consulting
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You mentioned a custom CSS Reset. What is that, and can I use it?
A CSS Reset is a stylesheet that tells your browser to ignore its default styles and style page elements only as defined by stylesheets linked to the page.
The CSS Reset I started with was the Meyerweb Public Domain CSS Reset. It didn't fit our needs as well as we would have liked, so I customized it slightly. Due to the simple, and extremely useful, nature of a CSS Reset, I have released the Bronstrup Consulting CSS Reset into the public domain. It is free to use, modify, and distribute. It's just my way of giving back to the web development community.
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Still have questions?
Our inbox is always open and our phones keep business hours. You'll find our contact info below; don't hesitate to use it!
Sounds Good, What Next?
Located in Parma, Ohio, Bronstrup Consulting is waiting to assist you with your hosting needs. We're always willing to meet in person with our Cleveland area clients. If you're not in the Northeast Ohio area, you can still contact us. Our contact information can be found at the bottom of every page of this site.
