Common Problems And Ways To Solve Them

[abrakatabra]

Hello!I am a new in HTML design. As far as I understand and as I can make sure that a biggest problem in html design to force working html code in all browsers.Can you please share common ways to solve such kind of problems? I mean if I have such problem what should I do? Is there a need to read documentation for all kind of browsers (if such exists)? Are these incompatible things documented? Or should I manually need to try any variants and choose one which compatible with some set of browsers?Thanks in advance.

[jeffman]

The biggest problem is that IE6-7 default to a different "box-model" than the other browsers. The others follow the W3C standards. The difference can be huge. If you define a box, like a div, to be 100px wide, then add 10px of padding all around, 10 px of margin all around, and a 1px border, then the resulting width of the box is 100 + (2 * 10) + (2 * 10) + (2 *1), or 142px. That is the standard. IE6-7 subtract the margins, padding, and borders from the interior of the box, so it remains 100px wide. That is a 42px difference on just one box.IE6-7 can be forced into standards-compliant mode by making sure you do 2 things:(1) Write standards-compliant code. That means no <font> or <center> tags, no presentational attributes inside tags (things like height and width--use CSS instead), using closing tags for items like <p></p> and <li></li>, and a few other details. If you validate your code, you can find any errors and then fix them. Do that here: http://validator.w3.org/(2) Use a strict doctype, which you can find here: http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/valid-dtd-list.html Just these steps can eliminate most inconsistencies. If others remain, come back and ask about them.

[abrakatabra]

Thank you

[Trotun]

I hope being 2 days late isn't bad...Well a common problem often run into is tables. They are one of the best tools to use for layouts, but you got to be careful how to set them up you'll be editing and checking code for a whole hour. I found that a good way to solve a problem you can't fix in a few short minutes is to have a friend who also knows html. sometimes they spot things you missed.hehe, so yeah that's really just broad. Most problem I encounter are table and color conflicting with text and how I want the layout to work.

[jeffman]

Tables are a neat shortcut to laying out simple designs. They are ideal for someone who is new to HTML, needs a page fast, does not need a complex page, and has no real interest in getting serious about web design.But as your designs get more complex, and as you really want to master this stuff, you will outgrow the limitations of tables pretty quickly. Anyone who sees serious web design in their future should skip right over table-layouts and learn about CSS.