FireFox vs IE7

[Steve D.]

I am using a MasterPage where the middle column - in a table of 3 columns -
contains the ContentPlaceholder.

Within this ContentPlacehoder, on a different page, I use tables to layout
sections of my form.

The form renders as I would expect in IE7. In FireFox, the column widths are
all out of whack - mostly, they are too wide.

Looking at the generated page source in FireFox I cannot immediately see why
these columns are so much wider.

I've seen suggestions about using <div> and css rather than tables. Can this
be done within a content placeholder - which itself is within a table on the
MasterPage?

Any advice or article links appreciated.

S. Daum

 

[Peter Bradley]

Generally speaking, FF is likely to be closer to the standards than IE
(although I believe IE7 is much better than previous versions). So,
statistically, the problem is more likely to be with the way IE is rendering
the page than FF. However this may not be the case in this particular
instance. Without the details, it's hard to say; but I've come across a
number of books recently that recommend developing for FF and then making
any necessary corrections for IE later.

But I have no experience with IE7, so this advice may not be relevant any
more. I wouldn't know.

As far as layout is concerned, the advice is only to use tables for tabular
data; not for layout. There are a number of reasons for this. Access
considerations for the visually impaired are, in my view, the most
important.

I don't know of any reason why you shouldn't be able to use CSS positioning
in this situation, but others may know better. A good book on the subject,
if you need one, is:

Rachel Andrew & Dan Shafer, HTML Utopia: designing without tables using CSS
2nd edn (2006), Sitepoint.

HTH


Peter

 

[Steve D.]

Peter,

Thanks for responding. I'll look into that book.
After some experimenting, I found that table cells where the width was set
to 100% render differently in FireFox than in IE. After chaning all of
these, I am able to get a pretty comprable look. I plan to study and use CSS
in the next iteration.

Thanks again.