HTML and Browsers

Initially the site was one big centred table. Once I learned about the IE issue, I broke it up into smaller tables. I also tried to make sure I was specifying heights and widths everywhere I could.

The center section of the site is a problem because it's three columns, and has to be wrapped in a table or a div, and it doesnt seem to appear in IE until all of it's content is loaded (it's fast in any other browser).

I've also tried rebuilding the site in CSS, and using nested float: left; and float: right; DIVs to get my columns to work, but I still have the same problem.

Can anyone suggest a way to build the center section so that IE will load it in parts, making the browsing experience better?

Many thanks in advance for any tips

[edited by: tedster at 5:01 am (utc) on April 29, 2008]

Is your source code also calling any javascript files? IE stops all other rendering and downloading completely while it downloads javascript, and this is often a cause for a slower page load. A fix for this is to move external js calls to the end of the source ocde, as much as possible.

You kight find some useful ideas in this recent thread: [url=http://www.webmasterworld.com/html/3547251.htm]Speeding Up Your Site - best practices for the front end[/url].

I'm using the principles discussed there with my clients, and it's making a lot of difference. Definitely watch the video that is linked from the first spot - it's inspiring to hear from someone who actually does rigorous testing and discovers new, unexpected factors.