AssociatePrograms.com

kneejerk · **Joined**: 07 Mar 2006 **Posts**: 22

Hi all,

My site was created using GoLive 5.0 on a Mac and, now that its published, it looks fine in all browsers but Internet Explorer 6 (PC).

It's simple HTML - one table with 16 columns of text and .jpgs - no Flash or Java.

It looks fine on a PC in Mozilla and Firefox, and it is fine on a Mac in Firefox, Safari and -- get this -- Internet Explorer 5.2.

But when I check it out in the most popular browser in the world, IE6, it looks awful -- columns 13-16 are stretched way out to the right, and my header is shifted accordingly.

What blows my mind is how many hours I spent resolving layout issues between Firefox and Safari using GoLive. All on a Mac, which is used by like 2% of surfers.

Lesson one learned.

Any ideas on why it looks so bad in IE6?

Thanks.

StarHugger · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject:

Hi kneejerk,

It looks like your tables are all over the place. The rows and cells don't neatly line up, so they overlap all over the place. Check out all the rowspan and colspan numbers for the td's and tr's. If those numbers don't match up, it can come out looking bizarre in IE and sometimes other browsers too.

I find this can happen when you try to insert new columns or rows or cells by splitting or merging existing units. It doesn't always translate and the program doing the math gets confused. It's possible that when you were designing this, you had an idea of what you wanted when you first started, and then it evolved and changed as you went along. Unfortunately those changes can sometimes cause confusion, and a web authoring program can't always keep up.

I find the easiest way out when this happens is to create the layout table from scratch all over again, and even to start with a fresh page file. Put temporary text in each cell to make sure it's lining up properly, and then pour the actual content into the cells. That would be my suggestion.

Some people also find it helpful to create the visual layout in a graphics program, save it as a bitmap, and then put that as the background to guide them and make sure the columns and rows are lining up the way they want. Then they'll take out the background image and what's left is the layout structure they want. Maybe that would help you too.

Good luck! I hope it works out. Let us know how you make out.

Starhugger
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