Dreamweaver, IE, and FireFox - Web Design

Discuss how to use and promote Web standards with the Mozilla Gecko engine.
BMR777
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Dreamweaver, IE, and FireFox - Web Design

Post by BMR777 »

Hello

I am using Dreamweaver (Design Mode) to design my webpage, and FireFox is butchering the page visually. I have already validated the page, and it came back clean. (With the exception of the Scrolling Marquee, which is meant only for IE Users.)

I usually get problems when using the DreamWeaver Layout View, but sometimes I get random problems as well. The page displays as it should in IE. FireFox will do this on multiple pages I create. Is there any DreamWeaver Extention or FireFox Extention or Update that will help with this, or any other fix anyone knows of?

Thanks
BMR777
old np
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Post by old np »

Link?
BMR777
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Post by BMR777 »

http://67.167.216.55:88/serve/rusnakweb/index.html

You will notice that there is some seperation between the Home and Forum button. That is not there in IE.

BMR777
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peter.reisio
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Post by peter.reisio »

Code: Select all

p {
    margin-bottom: 0;
}

This is sort of what you get for using tables for layout, though. :p
cohadc
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Post by cohadc »

I have a similar problem with my site.

www.coha.org

as you can see, the search bar has collapsed into the about bar. I tried to insert the code, but I wasn't sure where in the dreamweaver coding i should insert it. i'm not an expert webmaster, just an intern trying to figure things out.

please help.
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Cyberman
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Post by Cyberman »

What were you using to create that page? The "font" tag is obsolete and shouldn´t be used anymore.
Why are there so many DIVs with inline-styles? Can´t they be replaced by a few DIVs, using a style-sheet?

The DocType is truncated, I´d suggest using a complete one, or browsers won´t switch to standards mode. In standards mode, the outcome is more predictable, and should look similar everywhere.

What screen resolution is suggested to use? 1280?

There are several serious errors: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.coha.org/

The collapse probably is because of faulty rendering somewhere - each of this boxes is positioned absolute, right? I´d try to change that.

If you haven´t, I´d recommend paying a visit to www.w3c.org - especially http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/visuren.html .
HTML is defined by the W3C, not by a browser. <- I reject HTML5 for that reason. Making the fox guard the henhouse "because he's always been there anyway" isn't a good idea.
cohadc
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Post by cohadc »

Thank you for your help.
To fill in a few missing pieces, I built the page using dreamweaver mx (i know it's less than desirable, but i'm no code expert).

when you say faulty rendering and suggest changin the positioning, what would you change the positioning to?

thaks again!
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jqp
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Post by jqp »

I don't think cohadc is a coder, and he clearly said he was using dreamweaver. I doubt he'll understand all those code suggestions (much less the CSS box model...)
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Cyberman
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Post by Cyberman »

I overlooked that part with Dreamweaver. I didn´t think it´d turn out font tags.

--

I´d try to leave the stacking to the browser - two DIVs should go under each other by default.
The absolute positioning forces them to assume a given position, which apparently causes problems - probably because IE renders margins/paddings differently than the standard says.

Before changing anything, I´d try to view the page again, using this doctype:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">


instead of

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">


This will switch browsers to standards mode - meaning that it´ll look the same(or at least quite close) on all browsers.
Currently it´s in quirks mode, where browsers try to guess the intended meaning - and each browser guesses differently.
HTML is defined by the W3C, not by a browser. <- I reject HTML5 for that reason. Making the fox guard the henhouse "because he's always been there anyway" isn't a good idea.
BMR777
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Post by BMR777 »

Actually:

Replacing:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

With:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

Made my pages look a hell of a lot better on FireFox. Cool!
BMR777
cohadc
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Post by cohadc »

I tried switching the doctype code and the only change a minor text change at the top of the page. Unfortunately the "search" and "about" buttons still collide also causing the "our director" tab to fall off allignment.

Perhaps there is another way?

I fault dreamweaver, but i have no other option.
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peter.reisio
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Post by peter.reisio »

cohadc
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Post by cohadc »

that seems like a good program, but i have to stick with dreamweaver.
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jqp
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Post by jqp »

BMR777 wrote:Actually:

Replacing:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

With:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

Made my pages look a hell of a lot better on FireFox. Cool!
BMR777

That is going to throw Firefox and other browsers into quirks mode.
Your results are going to be more consistent across browsers if you use a DOCTYPE that keeps all browsers in "standards" mode.
cohadc
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Post by cohadc »

what doctype would you suggest?
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