Web pages display incorrectly

Question

Web pages display incorrectly

An example, Amazon home page. On my Mac Mini he column on the left has titles on each fly-out bar with a comment beneath on some. The title is okay but the comment over/under writes the title.

The same page displays correctly on my iMac.

Both computers are late 2009 and run Safari on snow leopard up to date.

I have found many common web pages that have the same problem on the mini and okay on the iMac.

Haven't found any differences in settings.

iMac late 2009, Mac OS X (10.6.3), It's new

Posted on Jun 18, 2011 3:52 PM

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Answer 1

macuser7

Level 1

59 points

Jun 18, 2011 5:15 PM in response to Simplistic0000

I think I'm having the same problem. I'm getting this message on the Amazon page: "Sorry, this browser is not supported by our Lightning Deals widget" or "Your web browser does not support this feature. Please visit our blah blah blah for a list of compatible web browsers that support the Amazon Online Reader." Embedded videos also don't work. Having the same messages on Firefox and Opera. Amazon says it's not their problem and suggested I empty the cache. Did that, no result. It all worked before... now it doesn't... don't know what to think.

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Answer 2

Jun 19, 2011 3:42 AM in response to Simplistic0000

Safari Preferences > Appearance Make sure that all the fonts are set right. This is how mine looks

Also check the encoding.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/404985?answerId=1937767022#1937767022

Message was edited by: chrisfromhopewell

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Answer 3

Jun 19, 2011 8:05 AM in response to macuser7

This doesn't sound the same to me.

I'm getting no messages at all when the page loads. Just overlapping text.

Does remind me though that the text is fine in firefox.

What I can't, so far, figure out is why safari is doing it right on the iMac but not on the mini.

I can't imagine why your error happens unless some Safari service is missing or bad.

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Answer 4

Jun 19, 2011 8:10 AM in response to chrisfromhopewell

Thanks Chris,

I looked at and tried changing these font defaults. They are the same for both computers. Changing them has no effect on any page I've tried. I read on the font setting help that the defaults are only used if the font is not specified in the web page coding.

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Answer 5

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Jun 19, 2011 10:33 AM in response to Simplistic0000

Simplistic --

You could have a font duplicate on that one.

Open up your Font Book application in your apps folder.

Select "All fonts" and then look for any alarms. Pay special attention to Arial and Helvetica fonts.

If any have a yellow alert triangle, just click them to resolve.

Also, I'm assuming you've restarted your Mac since you started seeing these problems, right?

And you've emptied the Safari cache & cleared the History list, right?

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Answer 6

Jun 19, 2011 10:55 AM in response to TildeBee

Thank you for the response.

The font book showed no alerts or flags. I scanned thru all of them and could see no duplicates.

And, yes I have restarted and cleared Safari history and cache.

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Answer 7

Jun 22, 2011 7:41 AM in response to Simplistic0000

An update:

This text problem also shows up on the Apple Support page.

Text within one of the frames on the page overlaps the lower edge of the box.

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Answer 8

Jun 22, 2011 9:24 AM in response to Simplistic0000

Quit Safari and firefox and all other browsers then open...

System Preferences > Network > Advanced > DNS. Delete out the numbers that are there and put in 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Click ok and then click apply.

Chris

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Answer 9

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Jun 22, 2011 9:37 AM in response to Simplistic0000

Simplistic --

Try this, OK? Do a Safe Boot. It will clear out some of your font caches, and other good stuff. The following is from an Apple Knowledge Base Article:

To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), do this:

Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

During startup in Mac OS X v10.4 or later, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login window, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. During startup in Mac OS X v10.2 through v10.3.9, you will see "Safe Boot" on the Mac OS X startup screen.

To leave Safe Mode, restart the computer normally, without holding any keys during startup.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

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Answer 10

Jun 24, 2011 8:03 AM in response to chrisfromhopewell

Hi Chris,

Tried this exactly as you instructed.

Unfortunately, no change in display.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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Answer 11

Jun 24, 2011 8:09 AM in response to TildeBee

Hello Bee,

Did the safe boot as you described.

No change in the display.

In addition I did a disk verify with no errors. And did a permissions repair.

Stil no change in displaying overlayed characters.

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Answer 12

Jun 24, 2011 9:11 AM in response to Simplistic0000

Open the Safari Preferences again and this time open Security and uncheck "Enable plugins". Quit and relaunch Safari.

Chris

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Answer 13

Jun 24, 2011 9:32 AM in response to chrisfromhopewell

Thanks Chris,

I won't need to try the security thing.

I just found what is causing the problem. In Safari preferences > Advanced > Universal Access: was set to "never use font smaller than 14". When I changed it to 10 pages display correctly.

Thanks to all for your input on this.

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Answer 14

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Jun 24, 2011 9:46 AM in response to Simplistic0000

Simplistic --

Thanks very much for coming back here to share your solution.

It was so basic, we missed it.

Good reminder for all of us.

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Answer 15

jwcosta

Level 1

0 points

Jul 2, 2011 9:26 AM in response to TildeBee

Hi. I think I may have your solution! Safari was driving me nuts on my brand new MacBook Pro and I was having the same problem of messed up/jumbled text on certain web sites. I couldn't even place an order on certain sites like Amazon or make a hotel reservation, for example, because the fill-in boxes had text all over them. I finally called technical support and escalated my call to one of the senior advisers. At last, she came up with a solution. The issue (at least for me) was in Safari preferences. Some of the preferences that I had changed over time were somehow interfering with how certain web sites appeared.

In summary, you have to delete any .plist files which have the word "Safari" in them. For me, these files were:

com.apple.Safari.plist

com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist

Once I deleted these and rebooted my MacBook Pro, Safari was returned to it's original state as it appeared when I first got the computer (i.e. the "Welcome" screen, etc.). This completedly solved my problem, and now all of my web sites are looking great with no jumbled text.

To find these .plist files, do the following:

1) Open the Finder window

2) Under "Places", click on the house icon (i.e. your hard drive icon)

3) Go to Library ----> Preferences and then expand the list of files that pops up so that you can read them all. Look for anything that has the word Safari in it (i.e. the two files that I mention above). Drag them to the Trash.

4) Close all windows and restart your computer.

5) After the Restart, open Safari. You will be back at the default Safari "Welcome" screen that first appeared when you got your computer. Try navigating to the troublesome web sites. I hope you will find that your problem is solved. It worked for me!

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