this problem has drove me crazy

please check the image, after i wrote the code it got two spaces circled in red lines could never be closed, and i dont know what is the reason, can any kind soul help me
http://blueny.sjrhosting.net/images/why.gif

<table width="144" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0>
<tr>
<td height=40>
<image src="images/menu_02.gif" border="0" height="40">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign=top>
<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%>
{section name=detail loop=$nagvigation}
<tr>
<td background="images/menu_05.gif" border="0" height="22" align="center" valign="middle">
{if $nagvigation[detail].sort1}
<font color=#ffffff face=tahoma size=2>{$nagvigation[detail].sort1}</font>
{else}
<font color=#ffffff face=tahoma size=2>{$nagvigation[detail].sort2}</font>
{/if}
</td>
</tr>
{/section}
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<img src="images/menu_03.gif" border="0">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#69757B" align=center>
<form method="post" action="search.php">
<input type="text" name="keywords" size=10>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</form>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height=11 bgcolor="#69757B">
</td>
</tr>
</table>

another problem please see those characters, between the circles, although i valign them to middle, they still appear to be out of middle, also help me please

your images need to be butted up next to the td tags, and you may be able to vertical align using CSS
<table width="144" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0>
<tr>
<td height=40><image src="images/menu_02.gif" border="0" height="40"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign=top><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%>
{section name=detail loop=$nagvigation}
<tr>
<td background="images/menu_05.gif" border="0" height="22" align="center" valign="middle" style="vertical-align:middle;">
{if $nagvigation[detail].sort1}
<font color=#ffffff face=tahoma size=2>{$nagvigation[detail].sort1}</font>
{else}
<font color=#ffffff face=tahoma size=2>{$nagvigation[detail].sort2}</font>
{/if}
</td>
</tr>
{/section}
</table></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="images/menu_03.gif" border="0"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#69757B" align=center><form method="post" action="search.php" style="margin:0px;">
<input type="text" name="keywords" size=10>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</form></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height=11 bgcolor="#69757B"></td>
</tr>
</table>

Whitespace in table markup is usually the culprit of such gaps, in IE. Try deleting the spaces/line-breaks btw tags...

edit: :p

thanks, the gap disappeared, but the text is still not aligned, please help

is there a link to the page u can give us?