[shmerek]

I am trying to make a website (using oscommerce) that will most likely be viewed by windows users. I have a dynamic menu thing going on and and for some reason explorer (or safari) renders the box size either one ****ing pixel smaller or larger (depending on your POV).
Example:
Explorer and Safari

I am trying to get that little round end gif to match up with the menu box but it matches in one browser or the other never both. So WTF is going on? Did I screw up the code or something or is this just some crappy difference between the browsers that I can never fix. At this point I have yet to check the site out on a windows box so maybe this question is moot.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Sharky K.]

are you using CSS? Tables? what is the url?

[shmerek]

Yes, oscommerce uses CSS for style and tables for layout, I am a bit reluctant with the url because the site is a big mess as of yet but here it is anyways.
(it seems to be down at the time of this posting I might have picked a lemon of a host ****)

[KeyLimePi]

I've found that, no matter what, there will always be size variations between platforms & browsers. I've given up on designs that require precise alignment of various elements. You just can never be sure it will render right on all machines (don't PCs still render type at 96 dpi while Macs use 72 dpi?).

I wouldn't concentrate so much on getting things to line-up so much as I would tweak your design so it isn't dependant on alignment.

[shmerek]

Does Safari use 72 dpi? It is only the one little element that needs to line up and I could easily toss it. Man sometimes the web sucks, I wish M$ didn't have such a strangle hold on web browsers and it is just going to get worse.

[arclight]

Yeah, sites that require precise alignment can be a real nightmare. You should be able to fix it though. Your host does apparently suck, it's still down.

Anyways, if it's basic table code it would seem to be an image alignment problem. Use the valign attribute on the cell tag. It's technically not kosher with the W3C but it's worked in the past for me. I ran into this a lot in the past. I began using CSS to get away from it. Tables can become more like riddles, especially when nesting.

As far as the 96 vs 72 I believe that's a non issue if you use CSS and pixel values for size.

[shmerek]

Not only is my site down but there whole freaking network is as well, I cannot even connect to any of their urls and the toll free number to call is a freaking answering machine. WTF I have never experienced something like this.

[shmerek]

Originally posted by arclight:
Yeah, sites that require precise alignment can be a real nightmare. You should be able to fix it though. Your host does apparently suck, it's still down.

Anyways, if it's basic table code it would seem to be an image alignment problem. Use the valign attribute on the cell tag. It's technically not kosher with the W3C but it's worked in the past for me. I ran into this a lot in the past. I began using CSS to get away from it. Tables can become more like riddles, especially when nesting.

As far as the 96 vs 72 I believe that's a non issue if you use CSS and pixel values for size.

I was using CSS and absolute positioning in pixels to place the gif.

**** I am pissed off with this ****ing server it has been down all ****ing day

update: The server was shut down by their supplier because somebody used it for a whole wack of spam. ****ers.

[Mediaman_12]

The problem here is that IE renders the CSS boxes differentely. It's a well known 'bug' and there is plenty of web resorces on dealing with it.
one here
Try a Google search for IE Box Model Hack to get loads more.

[shmerek]

Originally posted by Mediaman_12:
The problem here is that IE renders the CSS boxes differentely. It's a well known 'bug' and there is plenty of web resorces on dealing with it.
one here
Try a Google search for IE Box Model Hack to get loads more.

Cool, thanks for the links, I will give them a shot when the server finally gets up again.