Layout and template problems

[The Hick Man]

Hi there,

I have a html layout question…

The most annoying and definitely most time consuming thing I have encountered in trying to learn web design is getting the layout right…

I have in my site a template which has a title at the top and links down each side… the middle is then an editable region.

Trouble is if the page has a lot in its editable region it pushes the side links down the page and I would like them to saty at the top – no matter how long the pages goes down.

Please see http://www.tridentfc.com/News.php
***Edited By Minute44 - there was a dot missing from the link.***

I would really appreciate an answer for setting this out easily – it so fiddly!

Thanks in advance

Brian

[minute44]

Hi mate,

Basically your seeing a combination of problems resulting from the use of a tables based layout. Tables for layout are an out-of-date method of presenting a page. The modern way to go about making this page would be to use XHTML with a CSS controlled layout. This means that you no longer need to use table cells to hold portions of your layout. Instead you use <div> tags and use the CSS to tell those <div> tags where to go and what to look like.

The liquid, 3 column layout in XHTML and CSS is commonly referred to as the holy grail. This is because it has been notoriously difficult to get right in the past. However, there are a couple of sites out there that show you examples of working 3 column layouts and you are allowed to use their markup. One such site is the Float Tutorial.

What you ought t do is remake this page using XHTML and CSS and not only will this overcome your problems with the layout but will make the site more standards compliant and a heck of a lot easier to manage/update.

If you have any further questions please keep in touch. I'll try and help however I can.

[ukgeoff]

You could also download this little tutorial package I put together a while back.

It has full instructions in pdf format, the template files and css. What more could you want?

Have a play and to paraphrase a well known add - see what you can do!

http://1ontheweb.net/downloads/Templates.zip

[The Hick Man]

Hi Guys,

Thanks very much for your posts!

I am aware of css style sheets and have briefly used them but am yet to get the full use out of them or get the most out of them. Xhtml is also something I need to look into.

I really need to master them as it will clearly save me time and pain in the long run!

Wow the package sounds great I will get on the case immediately and download it now.

Maybe you can help me if I get stuck!

Thanks once again

Brian