Absolute Div positioning slightly different in IE vs FireFox

Browser compatibility issues with IE

[myk3]

Hi there,

I have created a new website for our business in DW. For SEO reasons I have reconfigured the DIV order so that my main content is at the top (in the HTML) rather than the top NAV as this is the main content i want the spiders to crawl first and i can easily manipulate the first URL which the spider will index which is usually has the most weight.

I have used CSS to give the bottom of the mainpic div some margin, then used absolute positioning for the body to move it down in to this area so it look correct and as it should.

I have positioned it in DW so it looks correct in IE. but when i open it in FF, Chrome etc there is around a 5pix gap between the bottom of the mainpic DIV and the Body DIV.

Below is the link to a test page i have created where you can see the problem. Open the page in both IE and FF and you will see my problem.

http ://www(dot)sphereitconsulting(dot)co(dot)uk/divtest/thank_you.html

I would be so grateful if anyone can help a newb to point out where in the CSS is causing this incompatibility?

Best,

Mike

[myk3]

i have been hacking around with parts of the CSS and found that if i make the following changes it works fine:

body {
background-image: url(images/img01.gif);
background-repeat: repeat-x;
padding-top: 30px;
margin: 0px;
padding-right: 0px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
padding-left: 0px;
border-top-width: 0px;
border-right-width: 0px;
border-bottom-width: 0px;
border-left-width: 0px;
border-top-style: none;
border-right-style: none;
border-bottom-style: none;
border-left-style: none;

I have uploaded the changes and you can test this live now.

can anyone advise if this is an accepted method to tackle this? i dont want to use CSS that is not needed.

best,

michael.

[drhowarddrfine]

I have positioned it in DW so it looks correct in IE. but when i open it in FF, Chrome etc

You did it backwards. Never, ever use IE as a reference for how things should work. Always, always use a modern browser to check your markup first. THEN look to see if/when IE screws things up. As evidence of this, notice how you saw the modern browsers performed the same as each other.

Never, ever trust IE to do anything right.

More in a bit (though I'm deathly ill today).

EDIT: Haven't checked to see if it affects this but you have two HTML errors and 5 CSS errors.

[drhowarddrfine]

You have a serious case of divitis (the need to wrap everything in a div) while I have a serious case of the flu. I have to go back to bed.

[myk3]

lol yes i know MS always have to be different. and i agree my site needs cleaning up with DIV etc but im very new to CSS and taught myself from research on the web.