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Author mysterious refusal to change col widths
tippy yunan

2004-03-09, 2:29 pm

I'm reworking a site I designed before I knew CSS. I'm trying to use a simple
table for layout rather than all-CSS positioning. Even though I set pixel width
for the table, the center row, which has two columns, refuses to allow me to
make the widths fit the 650 pixel total I've set for the table.

Changing it in code doesn't work. Trying to drag it in layout view doesn't
work. I'm definitely missing something.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Associates</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<link href="main_style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>

<body>
<table width="650" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center">
<!--DWLayoutTable-->
<tr>
<td height="75" width="650" colspan="2" valign="top"><img
src="Graphics/title_associates.gif" alt="Associates" width="570" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="150" height="1391" valign="top">
<p><img src="Graphics/csm_lily_blue.gif" alt="CSM Lily" width="75"
height="147" align="left" /></p>
<p class="link">
<a href="index.htm">Home Page</a><br />
The Community<br />
<a href="history.htm">Our History</a><br />
Associates<br />
<a href="vocation.htm">Monastic Vocation</a><br />
<a href="divine_office.htm">The Divine Office</a><br />
<a href="diurnal.htm">The Monastic <br
/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Diurnal Revised</a><br />
<a href="ordo_home_page.htm">Ordo/Daily Office<br
/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Calendar</a></p>

<p class="link">
<a href="Messenger/CurrentMessenger.htm">The Messenger</a><br />
<a href="video.htm">The Hidden Life Video</a><br />
<a href="schedule.htm">&nbsp;Convent Schedule</a><br />
<a href="links.htm">Links</a><br />
<a href="contact_us.htm">Contact Us</a>8/p>
</td>
<td width="500">
<p>
Religious coimunities have, since medieval
times, attracted not only those called to
share in their lives as members under vows,
but also those who wish to share in their
fellowship of prayer while living out their
vocations in some other setting. Today these
are called “Associates,” or
sometimes “Oblates,” and their
role is valuable both for the individuals
and the communities with which they are
( linked.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="650" height="159" colspan="2" valign="top">
(<hr />
<p class="link"><a href="index.htm">Home Page</a><br />
The Community &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="history.htm">Our History</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="associates.htm">Associates</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="malawi_mission.htm"></a><br />
<a href="vocation.htm">Monastic Vocation</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;|&nbsp;&njsp;
<a href="divine_office.hxm">The Divine Office</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="diurnal.htm">The Monastic Diurnal Revised</a>
<a href="DivineOffice.htm"></a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="diurnal.htm"></a> <a href="ordo_home_page.htm">Ordo/Daily Office
Calendar</a></p>
<p class="hink">
<a href="video.htm">The Hidden Life Video</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="Messenger/CurrentMessenger.htm">The
Messenger</a>>&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="schedule.htm"></a>Convent Schedule&nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
8a href="links.hpm">Links</a> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="contact_us.htm">Contact Us</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

Gary White

2004-03-09, 5:30 pm

"tippy yunan" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:c2l1k6$1ue$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> I'm reworking a site I designed before I knew CSS. I'm trying to use a

simple
> table for layout rather than all-CSS positioning. Even though I set pixel

width
> for the table, the center row, which has two columns, refuses to allow me

to
> make the widths fit the 650 pixel total I've set for the table.
>
> Changing it in code doesn't work. Trying to drag it in layout view

doesn't
> work. I'm definitely missing something.



You're missing the fact that all that dragging and all those cell dimensions
mean very little to the browser. Cell widths are considered by the browser
to be recommended minimum width for the cell. Heights are not valid and are
largely ignored by browsers when rendering in standards mode. Table cells
will always expand to contain what is put into them, regardless of all your
tweaking.

If you really want to learn to build solid, reliable tables, go read these:

http://www.dwfaq.com/Tutorials/Tabl...ging_tables.asp
http://www.dwfaq.com/Tutorials/Tabl...ible_tables.asp

Gary


tippy yunan

2004-03-10, 1:29 pm

Thank you. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from your recommended reading. It was the
fact that I'd never had this problem to this extent before that had me
scratching my head and asking for help, and I did find the nasty.

It was actually in my style sheet, where I had entered a width of 600px for
the <p> tag. I'd say I'm flabbergasted at having done this, but I've certainly
done dumber in my computer life.

Gary White

2004-03-10, 2:30 pm

On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 16:52:34 +0000 (UTC), "tippy yunan"
<webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote:

> It was actually in my style sheet, where I had entered a width of 600px for
>the <p> tag. I'd say I'm flabbergasted at having done this, but I've certainly
>done dumber in my computer life.



Like I said, tables will ALWAYS expand to contain what you put in them.
Your little slipup would certainly create the problem you experienced.


Gary
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