Beginner needs help.

[dave.s]

Using the "Complete idiots guide to creating a web page" I managed to build a site which looked exactly as I wanted it to. The book explains about the Pre tag to shift things around, using spacers etc. This trial and error approach appealed to me and I was very happy with the results. My frustrations began when I realised that the pages will not just stay as they are; for example, if I make the screen smaller images on the left move over and overlap text on the right, if I add or take away text, images move up or down. Why? Why? Why?!! Isn't there some way of "freezing" the page so things won't move, so images won't move when all I wanted to do was add a line of text and not touch the image?
A friend told me that a site has to be built in tables to work properly, but the book mentions tables as something that can be added to a page, not an essential method of building it. In fact the book takes you through the entire building process (Incl pre tag etc) right up to putting it on the web before even mentioning tables.
I have put some pages into tables with some help, but I can't get them to look like they did before. I just want it to look like it did at first and stay that way!
I'd really appreciate some help on this. As you can probably tell, I am far from a computer expert, so don't get too technical! Thanks.

[sypher]

Seems to me like your using layers?
Post a url so we can see the problem

[dave.s]

The address is www.davesetchfield.com I have no idea what layers are!

[sypher]

Whats with the big black image squares?

[dave.s]

Not sure what you mean. I know the photos need sorting out, as they take a long time to load. There are lots of spacers but they shouldn't show up. The site looks different in different browsers, that's another problem I have.

[benbramz]

have you used bacl squares to space your content out?!

That is really a VERY bad way of doing it....

Usually new designers use tables for their layout...never have i seen this beofre lol. Try using (tables) or if u feel a bit more confident use css positioning...(definatly the better - but both will do)

[sypher]

The spacers you speak of shouldnt be used in the way your doing them :P
As ben says start off with some tables and align the content inside it.

[herkalees]

Luckily you're at a point where you haven't learned either of the two "big" ways to layout a site (Using tables or CSS). If you're going to learn to layout a web site with tables, it will be easier, but you'll have more control and produce better long-term sites if you teach yourself the method that uses CSS.

Here are a couple links to get you started:
http://www.w3schools.com/
http://simplebits.com/publications/

[dave.s]

Thank you very much for your help, I will learn about CSS. I still find it odd that the book takes you through a method of building a site which seems to be a load of rubbish!

[herkalees]

Originally Posted by dave.s

Thank you very much for your help, I will learn about CSS. I still find it odd that the book takes you through a method of building a site which seems to be a load of rubbish!

Yeah, like modern day journalism, just because it's in writing doesn't mean it is correct, good, worthwhile, etc

[benbramz]

we are better then any book

Besides - learning the "better" way of doing things will help you in the long run