EI 6.0 doesn't like my idea for borders

[Keith Cochrane]

I've been surfing the web for several years and in that time I've found
that alot of the websites look like carbon copies with only variations
in the color scheme. One of the most "standard" features is the partial
border along the left side and top that usually contains the name of
the website on top and a menu on the left side of the page.

When I finally got around to toying around with building my own website
a couple of years ago, I had what I thought was a rather novel idea for
a full page border using a simple table. In all the years I've been on
the web, I'd never seen a webpage with a full border. (At least not one
that I recall.) So, I went with this rather simple idea and created a
few sites and after being forced to close two of them because the free
server I chose ended up turning the sites into popup hell, I ended up
with a website that looked ok, even though I haven't done much with it
over the past couple of years. Here is one of the pages that uses the
border I mentioned:
http://keithc.netfirms.com/idt.html

Unfortunately, the page looks ok in IE 5.0 and in Firefox, but falls
apart in IE 6.0 as the center and sides of the border don't load. I was
wondering if anyone knew a simple way of getting this to work? It's not
really a pressing issue, but if theres a way to make it look right in
all browsers, I think others might like to use full borders on their
own website projects. Personally, when my pages load properly, I think
they look "balanced", as compared to many of the pages I've seen on the
web.

Thanks for your time.

Keith.

 

[Toby Inkster]

http://keithc.netfirms.com/idt.html

'<img ... height="100%" ...>' doesn't mean what you think it means.

 

[Keith Cochrane]

'<img ... height="100%" ...>' doesn't mean what you think it means.

<IMG align=left alt="left bar" border=0 height="100%" hspace=0
src="rverticalbar.png" width=30>
I thought it meant 100% of the page height, (or in the case of tables,
100% of the available row height)?

Keith.

 

[TomB]

Keith Cochrane schreef:

I've been surfing the web for several years and in that time I've found
that alot of the websites look like carbon copies with only variations
in the color scheme. One of the most "standard" features is the partial
border along the left side and top that usually contains the name of
the website on top and a menu on the left side of the page.

In all the years I've been on
the web, I'd never seen a webpage with a full border.

http://deimos.curious.be/~dusk

Tadaaa ;-)

 

[Steve Pugh]

<IMG align=left alt="left bar" border=0 height="100%" hspace=0
src="rverticalbar.png" width=30>
I thought it meant 100% of the page height, (or in the case of tables,
100% of the available row height)?

You thought wrong. In this case it means 100% of the height of the
image.

Start using CSS and use background images instead.

Steve

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

You thought wrong. In this case it means 100% of the height of the
image.

No, quite the contrary: the specification says that "lengths expressed as
percentages are based on the horizontal or vertical space currently
available, not on the natural size of the image, object, or applet". Ref.:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/objects.html#adef-height-IMG

Browser may do this poorly, and may even deviate from the specification (in
addition to often doing a poor-quality scaling), but that's a different
issue.

Start using CSS and use background images instead.

That sounds like a good idea, especially for an image that is supposed to
act as just as a divider - a decorative horizontal rule, in a sense.
Actually, if such a divider is the most prominent graphic feature of a page,
the design is somewhat odd, and removing the divider or replacing with a
simple styled <hr> might be an improvement.

 

[Keith Cochrane]

But I really and truely hate CSS. I wrote my own software that uses its
own type of style sheets and would like to keep things as simple as
possible for future users.

That sounds like a good idea, especially for an image that is supposed to
act as just as a divider - a decorative horizontal rule, in a sense.

Horizontal or vertical works. I used to have text and a search box
within the horizontal divider at the bottom of the page, but I removed
it. I'm working on something else that's taking up nearly all my free
time at the moment, but I hope to redo the whole site in a few months.

Actually, if such a divider is the most prominent graphic feature of a page,
the design is somewhat odd, and removing the divider or replacing with a
simple styled <hr> might be an improvement.

<hr><hr><hr><hr><hr><hr><hr><hr>
I was thinking that someone using the same idea I had, could make a
real nice barbershop style pole on each side of the page without having
to use a huge graphic, just a small one that repeats in each row space.
It might look different in different browsers, but it should still look
like a barbershop, (ecept in E.I. 6.0).

Keith.

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

But I really and truely hate CSS.

As you like it. Nobody can prevent you from using the presentational HTML
kludgery from year 1996, but you shouldn't expect much willingness to help
you there (unless you pay sufficiently for that).

I wrote my own software that uses
its own type of style sheets and would like to keep things as simple
as possible for future users.

I have no idea of what you are talking about and how it relates to your
problem or HTML or anything.

Horizontal or vertical works. I used to have text and a search box
within the horizontal divider at the bottom of the page, but I removed
it. I'm working on something else that's taking up nearly all my free
time at the moment, but I hope to redo the whole site in a few months.

How does _that_ relate to anything? (I'm not even asking what it means,.)

<hr><hr><hr><hr><hr><hr><hr><hr>

I have a strong feeling that you are trying to be funny, or something.

I was thinking that someone using the same idea I had, could make a
real nice barbershop style pole on each side of the page without
having to use a huge graphic, just a small one that repeats in each
row space.

Actually, people do that a lot, using CSS. You'll have a hard time in
convincing them of the benefits of some HTML trickery that you need help
with.