Netscape formatting problems

any help appreciated

[stavs]

Another netscape formatting problem to turn my hair grey.

I'm using 5 tall table columns across the page and only one row. In each column is a list of data - each with a <br> after it so that it looks like a series of rows.

In IE the 'rows' of numbers and words line up perfectly - I'm using the v-align="top" within each <td> tag.

BUT in netscape, 2 of the 5 columns are offset from the top and the 'rows' don't line up - which makes it look like a complete unreadable mess - if the rows don't line up the data is worthless.

I've checked the html for errors or anything which might be causing this and there is nothing - I've kept the code as simple as possible and there is nothing in there than shouldn't be.

Also, in the first column I've got a graphic at the top (again using v-align) and some text underneath (seperated from the graphic by <br>). In netscape the text appears underneath i.e. behind the graphic rather than below it.

Would be ecstatic if anyone could help me out on this.

[john316]

You may as well just put all the data that you need to align into rows.

NN should get a colective invoice from webmasters at large for all the time spent (wasted) on their browser compatability.

[stavs]

The original page used rows and it weighed in at 60K - By changing the formatting to just columns, I've got it down to 11K.

I can't go back to rows - there has got to be a way to correct the vertical alignment in the columns.

> NN should get a colective invoice from webmasters at large for all the time spent (wasted) on their browser compatability.

You are SO right! SO, SO VERY RIGHT!!

[john316]

Here is a long shot:

Format the text the way you want it to look in a word processor and paste it into the html using <pre>preformatted text </pre>

I heard they degraded the pre tag, but who knows with NN.

[stavs]

Thanks John

I solved the first problem - don't know why it worked but I just changed the cellspacing of the table to 1 - it was originally at '0'. The mind boggles.

Still got the graphic problem with the text underneath - nightmare!

[tedster]

stavs,

Have you run the page through a validator recently? I've only seen Netscape stack up elements on top of each other when something is off with the table tags.

For instance, one time I saw this behavior when I had accidentally clipped a "<". NN4.x also flakes out if you're using CSS and there is any unclosed tag (like bold, italic, etc.)

Netscape has a funny way of turning typed spaces and hard returns in the code (both of which "should be ignored") into BR tags. I've often needed to omit space between </td> and the next <td> to get alignment to work properly.

[sarkye]

>I've often needed to omit space between </td> and the next <td> to get alignment to work properly.

Same here.. I've also found that making sure the closing cell tag is tight up against the end of the cell content has fixed layout glitches in NN:

</p> .......... bad
</td>

</p></td> ..... good :)

[knighty]

the most common cause of images sipping under/behind text or vice versa is when using line spacing in a style sheet.

otherwise get rid of any <p> tags etc as netscape treats the linespacing different.