Table on top of a background image

[Isa71]

Hi!
I have the following problem:
I am using tables to position the content on my site.
I have put a (fixed) background image in one of the <TD>:s. Apart from the background image I also have several small normal images (they are small logos) in the same <TD>. To control the position of the logos I have created a new table within the <TD>. It works fine in IE but in NS (4.7) the background image shows both in the <TD>, and then repeats itself in each of the <TD>:s in the inserted table. I know NS 4 does not support fixed background images but is there anyway around this? Is it possible to make the background of the <TD>:s of the inserted table transparent to make the original background image shine through?
I guess it is an option to make it all into one image and then make it an image map, but I am hoping there is a better way...

I could not find this topic when looking at previous threads but I am new to Webmaster World so I might have missed it.

Thanks!
Isa

[Brett_Tabke]

Hi Isa71, and welcome to the board.

I don't think you can do what you want with tables in nn4. I think you'll have to try going with out the tables to get it accomplished. Carefully placed images can get you there.

[Isa71]

Thank you, Brett!
There are quite a few small images and I find placing them (without a table) very tricky. Do you think making it all in to an image map would be a viable solution?
Any other suggestions?

[tedster]

In the <td> for your deepest nested table, try:

<td background="null">

That usually makes Netscape 4 table backgrounds behave.

This topic comes up here from time to time, but it's been about 5 months or so. As long as Netscape 4 hangs around (and with 4.8 just released, it probalby will) the problem will keep coming up.

[Brett_Tabke]

Even when they are double nested like that tedster?

[Isa71]

<td background="null">

i tried background="null" for the <td>:s
containing the logos. it works, but only partly.
i do see most of the background image, but
in each of the logo <td>:s, a small grey square
appears behind the logo (taking up about half of
the cell space). the grey colour would be the
background colour "shining through".
is there anything i can do about that?

thank you so much for your replies!

:) isa

[tedster]

That sounds like you may be using gifs with transparency in the logo images, is that right? If so, you might experiment with tailoring those images to look better in this usage.

Also, are you declaring a background color for the table, in addition to the background image? Or is this a body background color showing through? If it's a table background color, you might try skipping it.

One last thought is to try using CSS instead of the deprecated attributes. I'm not sure that Netscape 4 will cooperate, but it's worth a trial since CSS uses a different part of the browser's code to render the screen. I'm pretty sure that, somewhere in the possible combinations, there's an answer for you.

[BlobFisk]

I've seen this before, and like tedster I'd opt for a CSS fix before trying it.

Try using a nested table. Your parent table has your background image and the nested table then contains your images etc.

[Isa71]

Also, are you declaring a background color for the table, in addition to the background image? Or is this a body background color showing through? If it's a table background color, you might try skipping it.

thank you, tedster! sure enough, i had overlooked
the background colour in a surrounding table.
now it works perfectly with the background set to "null"
in the table with the logos! :)
thanks for everyone's input.

isa