Page not formatting the same in IE and Firebird

[emrys404]

Just as the title says i have a page that i am trying to get formatted the same in both browsers (all browsers perferably). This page is supposed to be printed so formatting is very important. What happens is on firebird it will fit on one physical page, but in IE it is too big and overshoots both the right maring and the bottom. I have added tags that make the text the same on both, however i think the problem is with my tables. What tags should i be using so it formats correctly in both. I will post my code if you need it. If you need clarification i will repost.

THank you for any and all help.
-emrys

[photon]

Are you using any

<div>

s? Or is it all tables? It might be the box model that is causing the IE rendering to be wider if you have

<div>

s.

Are you using CSS?

And welcome to WebmasterWorld!

[emrys404]

Thanks for the welcome. Its good to be here.
Um, Yes, almost all of my text is in <DIV> tags as it was the only way i could find to format the text properly. Basically i generated an html document from a pdf file that gave me all the text in <div> tags but didnt have any tables or lines, so i brought that file into Frontpage and created tables around the <div> tags. Is there anything i can do?

THanks
-emrys

[DrDoc]

Yes, welcome to Webmaster World!

Does your HTML validate [validator.w3.org]?

And, just so you know... Usually, if a page validates, and it still renders differently in IE and another browser -- IE is wrong. :)

[emrys404]

Well, i would be suprised if my page validates, it has an uncanny resemblance in look and creation to frankenstein... but here goes:
unable to validate this document because its content type is application/octet-stream, which is not currently supported by this service.
so.... what does that tell us?

thanks
-emrys

[DrDoc]

Did you try to upload the page? If so, what's the file extension?

[emrys404]

Woops, it was .php extension, okay so i changd it to .html and readded all the meta info etc. and now i get:
This page is not Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional!
and about 118 errors :) OKay i will attach the validation page for your viewing pleasure....
go here to view:
[mysanthropicasylum.net...]

thanks
-emrys

[DrDoc]

How about if you use XHTML instead?

Of course, that would require some work, but at least it allows for mixing of XML and HTML :)

[emrys404]

Hmm, are you talking about simply changing the meta type or rewriting the whole thing in xhtml?
If i'm going to rewrite it comletely (again) i am probably going to do it in php with the fpdf class and generate the whole damn thing as a pdf. but i dont wanna!
If you look at the bottom of the validatoin page you can see the code. Does anything strike you that i could change? like use stylesheet commands or something? anything?

heh, thanks very much
-emrys

[DrDoc]

And, as a side note -- that's a lot of divs and stuff :(

[DrDoc]

Well, changing the doctype would require rewriting some of the tags. But, just in general -- All those positioned divs really aren't necessary...

[emrys404]

Well, like i said, the main point of this page is is printability, and it needs to resemble a particular form to the letter.... so <div>s seem to allow me to put text in its proper location similar to how they are on the form... Why is something wrong with <div>s?

thakns
-emrys

[DrDoc]

There are just so many of them :)

[emrys404]

I think they are awsome, they give a measure of stability and reliability (not in my case aparently) to the chaotic swirls of html that always like to go in the one direction you dont want them to. Gah i hate that you cant format things reliably in html. Divs seem to do this well. I dont see why those stupid WYSIWYG programs dont use these. GAR!

heh

-emrys

[HowlingWizard]

not to change the discussion. But if need an exact printable document why not just create a PDF file? I have seen stuff out there for dynamic creating PDFs with php or ASP.

[emrys404]

yes, i was looking into dynamically generating the pdf however fpdf (the class i was looking at) doesnt allow you to bring in existing pdfs as templates, so i would have to design the form i need from scratch, which is, incidently, what i am currently doing :)

-emrys