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Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:12 pm
by <br>
http://www.thenextlevelunlimited.com/TShirts/
http://www.thenextlevelunlimited.com/

open these in both browsers... why is my body stretching in IE?!?!? :banghead:

Thanks,
Jacob

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 1:58 pm
by ghurtado
It's probably because you are using a very bizarre combination of divs and tables for your layout. Try changing the whole thing to use CSS based layouts (ie: divs instead of tables) and you will have a much easier time rendering the page consistently across browsers.

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:08 pm
by <br>
I'm just using divs for the outside containers and do the layouts with tables... its not that bizarre and I like doing layouts in tables.

I tried it with an overall container div and a 100% div with an inside 900px div... almost all my widths are declared to exact numbers and I can't find anything that should be stretching it in IE...

Thanks,
Jacob

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:59 am
by Stryks
I'm sure that people who do many a strange thing enjoy doing that strange thing .... that's not to say it's a really good thing to do.

But odd layout problems like this are a very much 'tables' problems. All browsers render differently, as do different versions of the same browser. Using CSS to layout your pages can all but eliminate major version discrepancies.

With this in mind, the advice to abandon the tables layout and use CSS and semantic HTML is not too far from what my own advice would be. Your design is really quite simple. It's a 5 - 10 minute job in CSS. No tag soup. No inconsistencies. And no need to carry that HTML bloat across all your pages.

As for QUICK ... it's not our fault if fixing your code requires long posts. :P

But seriously, you asked for advice, the least you can do is accept it, regardless of whether or not you implement it.

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:20 am
by desmi
And whats best, with css you can even make own layout for each browser (firefox and ie), and even for different ie versions..

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:28 am
by ghurtado
desmi wrote:And whats best, with css you can even make own layout for each browser (firefox and ie), and even for different ie versions..
Although we hope you won't have to :)

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:45 am
by desmi
Yea, but if we want to ;)

If we want to show some special stuff to ppl using ie, eg. firefox ads ;)

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:03 am
by <br>
I guess the former layout was a little ridiculous (deleted a few extra divs, tables and streamlined it... it works nicely), but I stand by my tables in divs design... I realize the merits of CSS, but the "CSS nazi" attitude isn't necessarily the right one either. Take a look at the new code if you wish... my old code became a bit messy and convoluted over time but that's not something you can lay on tables.

That being said, this forum has been good to me and I apologize about the semi-hostile post... Coding problems anger up my blood.

Jacob

Re: Please... QUICK help with IE/Firefox inconsistancy

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:21 am
by ghurtado
There is no need to apologize, the transition from tables to CSS does not happen overnight and can be a very painful one. I can understand the frustration, specially when you get advice like our "well, that would only take 5 minutes in CSS". Yeah, but you have to have the experience making CSS layouts first, otherwise it can take a lot longer than that.

It isn't so much that people are offended, treating you like a sinner for using tables, but the advice usually comes from developers that have walked that path before and like any other type of advice, when I give it, I can only tell you how "I would do it". This is inevitable; since I "don't do tables", I can't help you get your layout fixed with tables, but I may be able to help you with a CSS layout. So it isn't so much about being a "CSS nazi", but trying to help you in the best way we can and know how. Tables just isn't the way "we know how" any more because we tried to erase every bit of crazy browser quirk once we moved on to CSS layouts.

I am glad you got your IE issue worked out. At the end of the day it all comes down to managing complexity. CSS layouts are an attempt to reduce the complexity we have to deal with.