Problem with three column layout in Internet Explorer

[Aleksandersen]

Hi,

I have a problem with the three column design over at my open source blog.

My design works with all Gecko based (Firefox, Flock, ..), and KHTML based (Konqueror, Safari, ..), Presto based (Opera, Opera mobile, ..), and the Windows Internet Explorer 7 browser. However not with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, nor 5.5. I have been unable to fix the mIE issue, and is therefor requesting some assistance.

Layout summary: One big, centralised column. Separated in two columns (ad. and content), and finally the content column is separated in two again as blog entries, and the side panel.

Full layout description: #container is wrapped around everything, and holds it all together and centralised. #load is the long advertisement floating to the left. Then there is #header (margins to separate it from #load) which is wrapped around #title (which floats to the left) and #recent (with margins to the left to keep it away from #title). Underneath #header, you will find #main (margins to separate it from #load) which is wrapped around #entries, and #panel that work the same way as #title, and #recent.

Can anyone please give some coding assistance to help me fix the mIE issues without breaking compatibility with the other browsers?

[Aleksandersen]

I have gotten much help on the Boagworld forum, and have been able to get mIE 6 support too! However mIE 5 support still is an issue.

[mreine]

Forget about 5

[Ryan Fait]

Forget about 5.01, but get IE5.5 working if you can. There're still a fair amount of people using 5.5.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

3% isn't really that small of a group and getting your site to work in 5.5 isn't that difficult. It's quite close to IE6. Internet Explorer 5.01, however, is just plain stupid.

[mreine]

People still in IE5.* clearly don't buy anything so who cares. I can't even believe they can still access the internet. All of them must be on dialup or at least their broadband runs like dialup because of their dinosaur computer. Probably still on win95.

IE6, however, should be around for quite some time due to IE7 requiring XP or VISTA. Even though 2000pro, in it's on way, is also a dinosaur it is still heavily used and you can't upgrade to IE7.

[Ryan Fait]

You love to argue

IE 5.5 and IE 6 are very similar. Chances are, if it works in 6, than it works in 5.5. Once in a great while I'll see something that requires 10 seconds of tweaking... I personally don't take such shortcuts when designing websites. Especially if 3% of the users visiting w3schools.com are using IE 5.5...

[mreine]

First you need 5.5 available for testing which is a complete waste of effort no matter how you do it.

If you are selling dentures, adult diapers, canes, wheelchairs, arthritis drugs or anything else for the elderly, you may want to consider 5.5 since that's the only people likely to be using it. And even then, these people don't buy things over the internet.

I think the wheel was first ordered on 5.5 wasn't it? Or was that the first piece of sliced bread? Maybe it was a caveman's club?

[Ryan Fait]

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE does the trick. It's wonderful that you're advocating the future of computers and the user, but your argument is just ignorant.

As of February of 2007, the number of people visiting w3schools.com using IE5 was 2.5%. That's more than Safari, Mozilla and Opera.

Be lazy if you want to, but I don't mind taking the extra five minutes out of my day to tweak my CSS to make sure a site works in IE 5.5.

[JacobHaug]

Me neither, I also try to make my sites accessible to as many people as I can.

[mreine]

Ignorant... lazy? anything else you want to call me?

-----"As of February of 2007, the number of people visiting w3schools.com using IE5 was 2.5%"-----

Does it explain how many of these people can't view 90% of the sites they visit? Does it explain how many actually purchase something on the 10% of the sites they can view?

[pa007]

It wasn't a personal attack, but I happen to agree that developers who don't make their sites accesible to as many people as possible are not doing their job. It is literally a case of spending a few minutes tweaking code and it'll work in ie 5.5. Simple.

I have an enormous amount of respect for people who tackle usability issues but the first step is to make sure sites work in all browsers and for me ie 5.5 is used by enough people to make it worth bothering with. We aren't talking pixel perfect here, just making the site work. Not a lot to ask is it. And it is quite simple.

Pete.

[JacobHaug]

Yes, I am quite proud my latest website...works in every browser I tested it in, with no problem!!

IE 3.0
IE 4.1
IE 5.1
IE 5.5
IE 6.0
IE 7.0

PLUS all of the normal’s like, Firefox, Safari, Netscape, and Opera!! Yeah, I have no life...but first time...it just worked...good thing I don't brag...lol

[Ryan Fait]

Let's be clear, I was calling the concepts lazy and ignorant. The fact that the former applies to you is coincidence.

I have tested so many sites in IE 5.5 after them looking fine in 6. Roughly 80% of the time, I didn't have to do any tweaking. That other 20% usually took only a few minutes of adjusting before they were perfect. IE 5.5 renders CSS so closely to IE 6 that it makes no sense not to take a few extra minutes to get the job done right. As for your statistic of 90% of sites breaking in IE 5.5, I'd put the figure closer to 1%. As for sites breaking to the point where a visitor can't use the site, I'm thinking closer to 0.01%.