Simple CSS Layout compatibility issues

[aimerzz4]

Hi. I have been desperately trying to find a way to make my site compatible with basically every internet browser--Firefox, IE, Opera, etc., etc., however I'm having a problem!
The layout for my site is extremely simple structured with layers using the Dreamweaver 8 program. I am also having a problem with the pure CSS drop down menu in IE ...yet again!

It looks perfect in FireFox but looks all screwed up in IE 6. (I'm assumign you guys can view source instead of me putting the whole entire code on here. :P)
http://www.emmafrostfiles.com/test32322.html

Stylesheet for dropdown bar:
http://www.emmafrostfiles.com/csstyles/finaldrop.css


Can someone please help and hand me a code that will be compatible with IE? I really don't want to make a whole entire page for IE users considering that this is such a simple layout.

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

I hate to say this but this is what you get for having a program do the work for you. You first need to validate your html. You have 78 coding errors. See them here (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emmafrostfiles.com%2Ftest32322.html). I'm going to guess that you likely won't know how to fix a majority of them. With the ones you don't know what to do just ask. Once your html is valid then we can worry about if its the CSS or not. Finally I think you should read the link in my sig titled "Why Tables for Layout is Stupid?".

[aimerzz4]

Ahhh, back to the days of being a newbie again!!


Alright, thank you for the pointers. I will check this all out.
In the meantime, what alternatives do I have instead of using tables for layouts?

Also keep in note, I'm using this site to provide information and resources for a comic book character. I'm not using this to make money, business, etc...basically for personal use. I don't need a high tech website and everything for what I'm using it for.

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Pretty much anything but tables. You have divs or as beginners like to call them "layers". Divs will be your building blocks. Everything in the divs will be the final pieces. You will have things like header tags, paragraph tags, horizontal rules. Take a look at this tutorial: http://bonrouge.com/3c-hf-fixed.php

Tables have their place when displaying data just not for page layout.

[aimerzz4]

The problem I'm having is that it's so much easier to position tables but a lot more confusing (maybe not?) to position something else....

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Suit yourself. Absolute positioning is not the way to go.

[aimerzz4]

Yeah, I can see that. I'll have to find another solution.

Also, what do you recommend for the navigation menu? The one I;m using obviously isn't working for other browser. I don't want to exclude links if I go back to the old simple link by link, but I also want it to look stylish.

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

I recommend the suckerfish drop downs. http://alistapart.com/articles/dropdowns/

Its a little more cleaner and will work in most modern browsers. It requires a snippet of JS. This isn't to big of an issue because most people using IE don't know how to disable javascript to begin with. Do you?

[aimerzz4]

Yep, I do know how to enable/disable Javascript.

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Yep, I do know how to enable/disable Javascript.

In Firefox yes its simple but I was asking do you know how to in IE? Its not that simple for the average user.

[aimerzz4]

Yes, I do know how to do that IE as well.

Why do you ask? lol

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Guess you aren't the average user. The point I'm trying to make is not many people know how to so I think using some javascript for a menu to work in IE is fine.

[aimerzz4]

Yeah, I see. I originally did not want to make a javascript menu because I read some article that a lot of people have javascript off while browsing the net. Not only that, I heard that after upgrading to IE7, it has javascript off as a default option....which I thought, "Oh no!! Not many people will be able to use this and I can't tell them to enable javascript..." blah blah blah, but then I realized that not many people will be able to see the CSS menu!! It looks like I'll have to make a DHTML w/ javascript after alll...

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

The CSS menu at the link I gave you will work in IE7 without javascript. Its IE6 that requires the javascript.

[aimerzz4]

I did set that up with the provided code.

Now I need to style it with color and backgrounds...the one I used on the example page provided (I viewed source) is very confusing and I don't need those little borders on the side. I would just like a simple hover, off hover background, etc. Do you know the code for that?