[Nicko]

OMG, netscape is really starting to piss me off . Im a newbie using Golive and using alot of tables and nested tables to build my site....everything always looks great in IE5...but for some pages the tables overlap in netscape (4.7) Whats up with that! I have tried everything, from rebuilding the table to making the margins different. I really don't know much about editing the source at the moment (still learning but I am sure that the code can be edited somehow to fix this.

Are there any easy tricks I can use when designing/placing tables to make sure they look how they are supposed to look on both browsers?

Also, if a page is screwed up in netscape 4.7 on a mac, will it be just as messed up on a pc using netscape of any version? Conversely, if a page looks fine in IE5 Mac will it be ok in IE6 on a pc?

I would appreciate any helpful tips on how to work this out

[chris v]

It's not just you. I was trying to build a single table, 2 columns, table width set to 100%. Column 1 set to pixels, so it won't resize, and column 2 set to auto, so it will resize. Works in every browser but Netscape 4.x. Also, nested tables will display the BG picture of whatever cell they're nested in unless you turn ON the BG picture radio button on the nested table, but leave the image path blank. What is up with that??

CV

[Mac Guru]

Here's a trick, Sell GoLive and buy yourself a copy of Dreamweaver. You'll thank me for it.

GoLive's Table creation SUCKS. As do a LOT of it's features... I only use it if I'm forced to.

Mac Guru

[Simon Mundy]

Originally posted by Mac Guru:
<STRONG>Here's a trick, Sell GoLive and buy yourself a copy of Dreamweaver. You'll thank me for it.

GoLive's Table creation SUCKS. As do a LOT of it's features... I only use it if I'm forced to.

Mac Guru</STRONG>

Yeah, that'll help compatibility with Netscape 4.7

There's no easy 'trick' with cross-browser compatibility with tables. Just a rule of thumb that IE is forgiving (it'll bend over backwards to try to render your table properly) and NS is a damn by-the-book-bugger!!! - if you don't explicitly tell it to do certain things, it'll use its own internal logic to write tables.

Example 1:

A table at 100% with 2 columns, 1 set to 100 pixels, 1 set to auto. Because the table is set to %, the 'auto' setting won't render properly, so it ends up spreading the contents evenly across the table. To fix it, simply set the 2nd column to 99% width. Well, you would think, anyway. If the 1st column hasn't got something inside its cell to physically make it 100 pixels wide, Netscape will try to make the 99% width of cell 2 as wide as it can, so it will collapse the width of cell 1 as far as it can - so if you have the letter 'a' in cell 1, the width of cell 1 is very tiny.

Phew. Having fun so far?

Example 2:
There's a bug in NS 4 (gee, how strange) that causes all tables/cells nested within a table with a background image to inherit that background image, resulting in a kaleidoscopic effect. To fix it, set the src of bground to a spacer or transparent gif - in effect, what you're doing with setting the checkbox and leaving it empty is causing an error which isn't a good thing with NS - it gets antsy about errors within its page if there's any javascript.

A couple of other tips with NS and GoLive - I use it all the time, and even though it has its rough edges (I'm using 5 not 6 - waiting for the $$$ to come in still!) it's still a solid performer.

• Double check the width of tables and the width of each cell to make sure they add up properly. Netscape seems to respect the sum of the cell widths, so it can cause problems if they don't add up.
• Using GoLive, make sure you create a table by adding ALL the columns and rows first, then set the table width. For some reason, it automatically adjusts the width of a table whenever you add or delete columns, causing the table to have a width different to the sum of its cells
• Once you've got the look of the table right in IE, dive into the source code and go through the table data with a fine-tooth comb. Insert non-breaking spaces or spacer gifs in empty cells, or eradicate empty cells by using COLSPANs or ROWSPANs from their neighbors.

If you get this looking good in NS, it's 98%* likely they'll look consistent in other browsers and platforms.

Dreamweaver, PageSpinner, BBedit, etc, are NOT guaranteed tools to create consistent pages with. Thorough knowledge of HTML and experience with browser quirks are the real tools. And the kind, patient souls on these boards who have provided me with a lot of valuable insight!

Happy coding

*Arbitrary figure reached by me not being bothered to actually quantify my findings

[Nicko]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies guys!
Luckly the problem with the tables overlapping only seems to be happening on a few pages and I have been able to fix the problem by tweeking the cells and adding a few spacers. This is really annoying though, but if you say that getting it to work in netscape will mean that it will work with most every browers, then thats ok. Oh and I also read that IE ignores golive spacers? ugh... i'm getting the hang of this though

[chris v]

Originally posted by Nicko:
<STRONG>Wow, thanks for the quick replies guys!
Luckly the problem with the tables overlapping only seems to be happening on a few pages and I have been able to fix the problem by tweeking the cells and adding a few spacers. This is really annoying though, but if you say that getting it to work in netscape will mean that it will work with most every browers, then thats ok. Oh and I also read that IE ignores golive spacers? ugh... i'm getting the hang of this though </STRONG>

I'd forgotten the transparent gif thing... but they seem to work in IE. I've got one table built with one placed for a spacer, but it's a bugger to select with a mouse in GUI mode....

I'm gonna try the 99% instead of auto... for the second cell, that's a good tip. Thanks, Simon.

CV