Method for operating a web-processing machine with at least one first driven transport roller (2) which transports a material web (10), at least one second transport roller (4) which transports the material web (10), and at least one machining unit (8) which machines the web, wherein at least one transport roller (2, 4) has a drive device (12, 14), and at least one drive device (12) is controlled by a control device (20), and wherein said drive device (12) is controlled as a function of elongation properties of the material web (10), wherein an attenuation of said elongation properties is also taken into consideration when the elongation properties of the material web (10) are considered.