Different browsers interpretation of code

[douger9999]

Hello all,

I must confess, I am a frustrated table user who is trying to migrate to a more table free layout, but is being put off doing so by the variation I see when I preview my pages in different browsers.

The problem is that I am comfortable using tables, and I understand them They are universally supported. The best thing about a table layout is that when you place something inside a cell it can’t migrate somewhere else!

If I spend ages designing a page in dreamweaver, using the preview page, and then use IE to preview the page things look fine, but then if I preview in NN things look nasty – there are divs all over the place. If I get things looking nice in NN and IE, they look nasty in dreamweaver. Etc etc etc… What’s going on?

If I start using Floats/Clears, things become much worse!

Is it necessary to write different CSS files for each brower? Surely not!

Are there a whole load of fixes which need to be applied to each and every page to ensure cross browser compatibility? If so can these be built into a template?

Am I right to aspire to a more table-free layout?

If so how is it done?

Many thanks

Doug

[Robin_reala]

I suggest you start testing your designs first in a standards compliant browser instead of Dreamweaver's design panel. Firefox, Opera, or Safari would all be decent choices. This is because it's usually IE that gets stuff wrong, and it's bugs are well documented.

Fwiw I usually end up having to have a seperate stylesheet for IE5, but that's it. Everything else plays nicely with a little tweaking. (By seperate stylesheet I mean a stylesheet containing all the fixes needed.)

[victor]

There are annoying differences between browsers when it comes to CSS.

Most can be avoided by using a strict doctype. Others can be avoided (or fairly easily worked around) by avoiding most of the things that need CSS hacks.

What can help a great deal is an attitude shift....If you are used to using tables, then you may have a approach closer to that of a print designer than a web designer.

Things are meant to move around on webpages to accommodate the size/browser/fonts/monitor/etc/etc that the user is using.

Content needs to shapeshift to match the user, rather than the other way around.

That shapeshifting can be more dramatic with divs than with tables. In the same way that airplanes have more degrees of freedom than railroad trains. That an airplane does not stick to a track is a design feature, not a limitation.