How can I fix what IE is doing?

[brother wolf]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I have been working on a sort of tutorial site for an application called Game Maker. I am nearly finished with it and decided to see what it looked like in internet explorer (I had been using Mozilla to view it).

Anyway, some pages work ok in IE and some get all crazy like this (http://brotherwolf.net/gml/code/control/16.php). This (http://brotherwolf.net/gml/code/control/1.php) is how I want it to look. I had a similar problem when I forgot to close a span but I am pretty sure all of the pages validate now.

I would also like to get rid of the break between the top image and the code area below it.

This is the first site of any complexity I have ever worked on. I hope someone can help solve these issues.

[Kravvitz]

You should use a complete doctype (one that includes a URL) to get browsers to render as close to the same as possible. I recommend HTML 4.01 Strict.
Activating the Right Layout Mode Using the Doctype Declaration (http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/)
Fix Your Site With the Right DOCTYPE! (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/)
Choosing a DOCTYPE (http://www.juicystudio.com/choosing-doctype/)
Use the Right Doctype (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2000/04/14/doctype/index.html)
Doctype switching (http://www.webdevout.net/doctype_switching.php)
http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/Web-Quality
http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/valid-dtd-list.html

[brother wolf]

Thanks, I have updated my doctype and validated the pages with the w3c's validater but the problems remain. IE puts the right side div, called contentcenter, below the contentleft div but only on some pages. I don't understand why some pages are doing this while others do not. I can't see any difference in the source and the only thing that gets changed from one to another is the contentcenter div.

Please help before I go bonkers.

[Kravvitz]

Take a look at this:
http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/expandingboxbug.html

[brother wolf]

Thank you! That page solved all of my IE problems. Now I don't have to hate it so much.