RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-12 Thread Mike Pepper
Ok Michael,

Rewrite www.seowebsitepromotion.com, making it appear as is, meeting 640,
800 and 1024+, windowed of not, whilst maintaining non
collapsing/overlapping columns whose alternate sheets 1px delimiting column
borders do not break at certain resolutions in certain browsers -- and I'll
take my hat off to you. Why bother?

That's like the 'make your site accessible to handhelds' argument. In the
real world, nobody is going to access my site with a handheld because it
contains no relevant data. It's meant to be viewed on a desktop. If I were
offering columnar data, like flight schedules and fairs I would ensure
wireless pad users could access the data (but, of course, because of the
limiting screen size, I wouldn't use tables but collapsing divs), since
they may be en-route to the airport and needed last minute departure times.

But as Neerav implies, there is the law of diminishing returns, and
accessibility is about making your site as accessible to as great an
audience - a real, not imagined or hypothetical audience - as possible.

Use the currently available tools and wait for CSS and browsers to go
columnar.

Mike Pepper
Accessible Web Developer
www.seowebsitepromotion.com

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Michael Donnermeyer
Sent: 12 May 2004 02:19
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [WSG] Forms, labels  headers


 using a CSS for the sake of it approach creating multi column
 layouts and faffing about

I don't look at it that way...it's quite easy to get everything to work
right without tables if you're willing to put the effort in.  Since mid
03 I have stopped using tables for anything other than what they're
supposed to contain...tabular data.  That's their purpose in the world,
just like ours is to pay outrageous taxes and work our butts off for
low pay (isn't it?).  I've had very few issues arise since...less than
the layouts before, that's for sure.

The worst thing that ever happened to the web was the idea of using
tables for layout, although frames are a very close second.
Accessibility should be the primary concern of every developer for the
web.  The web was intended to make sharing information/data/etc. simple
and far-reaching.

Why a developer would make so much more work for him/her self is beyond
me when there's a valid, easy, better, standardized alternative.


~MD



On May 11, 2004, at 20:49, James Ellis wrote:

 1. I have a multi-column layout... when I psuh the site to a layout
 for handheld I'll turn off the floats that handle the columns. The
 content will then cascade down the page. This will involve adding a
 new stylesheet and linking to it via a media attr, a user agent sniff
 or a hyperlink for the user.

 2. I have a multi-column layout... when I push the site to a layout
 for handheld I'll have to change the markup so that the table rows
 have only one cell in them each. This will also affect the screen and
 print versions of the site (so I'll have to do mutiple markup for the
 same content).

 Which one is easier and better in the long run?

 faffing around with rowspans and colspans can be frustrating as well.
 The difference being that one method has a future, the other doesn't.

 Cheers
 James


 Neerav wrote:

 hear hear .. multi-columnnar sites are much easier to do with a
 single wrap around table and work cross-browser than using a CSS for
 the sake of it approach creating multi column layouts and faffing
 about s=as Mike says

 standards are all well and good, and where possible I have no problem
 with adhering to the letter and spirit of webs standards, but
 sometimes things like wrap around tables are indispensible.


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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-12 Thread Rimantas Liubertas
That's like the 'make your site accessible to handhelds' argument. In the
real world, nobody is going to access my site with a handheld because it
contains no relevant data.

Bold assumption. Does that mean that you are absolutely sure that
any person who might be potentially interested in the content provided
on your site won't use handheld for browsing?

But as Neerav implies, there is the law of diminishing returns, and
accessibility is about making your site as accessible to as great an
audience - a real, not imagined or hypothetical audience - as possible.

Once again, does that  mean that handheld devices, celular phones and
all other non desktop browsing stuff does not exist in the real world?

Use the currently available tools and wait for CSS and browsers to go
columnar.

And then what? Complain about old browsers being used by too many people
to be ignored,  complexity of the CSSx etc?
But I agree - use tools currently available, not those from last century (199x).
Sure you can use whatever you wish to, but statement that current CSS
is not ready for real world is wrong, IMO.

And by the way: xhml1.1 cannot be served as text/html.
And IE does not support application/xthml+xml.
Why not to stick with HTML4.01 till better times?

Regards,
Rimantas



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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-12 Thread Mike Pepper
Hi Rimantas,

Bold assumption. Does that mean that you are absolutely sure that
any person who might be potentially interested in the content provided
on your site won't use handheld for browsing?

No, I'm not sure; I just don't care. I have not developed the site for them.

Once again, does that mean that handheld devices, celular phones and
all other non desktop browsing stuff does not exist in the real world?

I just don't care. I have not developed the content for them.

And then what? Complain about old browsers being used by too many people
to be ignored,  complexity of the CSSx etc?

I'm not complaining. I use of current technology. And my sites will be
accessible to older browsers.

Once again, does that  mean that handheld devices, celular phones and
all other non desktop browsing stuff does not exist in the real world?

You're mixing statements.

Sure you can use whatever you wish to, but statement that current CSS
is not ready for real world is wrong, IMO.

Look at papers, magazines and websites. Columns, columns and columns. Can
these be easily achieved using current CSS?

And by the way: xhml1.1 cannot be served as text/html.

No, it can't; it's - to use the cute phrase - tag soup.

And IE does not support application/xthml+xml.

Yup, silly, eh.

Why not to stick with HTML4.01 till better times?

Because I need to look to the future.

Mike Pepper
Accessible Web Developer
www.seowebsitepromotion.com


-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Rimantas Liubertas
Sent: 12 May 2004 10:36
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [WSG] Forms, labels  headers


That's like the 'make your site accessible to handhelds' argument. In the
real world, nobody is going to access my site with a handheld because it
contains no relevant data.

Bold assumption. Does that mean that you are absolutely sure that
any person who might be potentially interested in the content provided
on your site won't use handheld for browsing?

But as Neerav implies, there is the law of diminishing returns, and
accessibility is about making your site as accessible to as great an
audience - a real, not imagined or hypothetical audience - as possible.

Once again, does that  mean that handheld devices, celular phones and
all other non desktop browsing stuff does not exist in the real world?

Use the currently available tools and wait for CSS and browsers to go
columnar.

And then what? Complain about old browsers being used by too many people
to be ignored,  complexity of the CSSx etc?
But I agree - use tools currently available, not those from last century
(199x).
Sure you can use whatever you wish to, but statement that current CSS
is not ready for real world is wrong, IMO.

And by the way: xhml1.1 cannot be served as text/html.
And IE does not support application/xthml+xml.
Why not to stick with HTML4.01 till better times?

Regards,
Rimantas



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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-12 Thread Rimantas Liubertas
Look at papers, magazines and websites. Columns, columns and columns. Can
these be easily achieved using current CSS?

Yes.

Because I need to look to the future.

Well, then we see different future. I see increasing usage of handheld browsers for 
which one column is the best bet so far.

You are looking to fhe future with xhtml1.1 (which is much much younger than CSS) but 
care for the older browsers. Properly marked up content is accessible for any browser 
even withous CSS support, nothing new in that.

Anyway, I can see your point. Mine is different one and we both have arguments for 
them, so let's stop here.

At least your site is an good example of well coded hibryd layout ;)

Regards,
Rimantas
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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-12 Thread Mike Pepper
Mine is different one and we both have arguments for them, so let's stop
here.

Good call, Rimantas.

Have a good one,

Mike

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Rimantas Liubertas
Sent: 12 May 2004 13:00
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [WSG] Forms, labels  headers


Look at papers, magazines and websites. Columns, columns and columns. Can
these be easily achieved using current CSS?

Yes.

Because I need to look to the future.

Well, then we see different future. I see increasing usage of handheld
browsers for which one column is the best bet so far.

You are looking to fhe future with xhtml1.1 (which is much much younger than
CSS) but care for the older browsers. Properly marked up content is
accessible for any browser even withous CSS support, nothing new in that.

Anyway, I can see your point. Mine is different one and we both have
arguments for them, so let's stop here.

At least your site is an good example of well coded hibryd layout ;)

Regards,
Rimantas
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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-12 Thread Andrew Sione Taumoefolau
On Wed, 2004-05-12 at 12:33 +1000, Jake Badger wrote:
 It's not as though if we hadn't had tables for layout we would
 have sat around doing nothing. If it hadn't been for table layout
 CSS would have been developed sooner and taken up a lot faster.

Assuming that the web would have been popular enough to warrant our
attention even if it hadn't been as visually interesting as tabular
layouts allowed it to be, sure. I'm not sure that that's a safe
assumption to make, however.

Apologies to the list admins if this is moving off-topic.

Andrew Taumoefolau

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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-11 Thread Mike Pepper
Bert,

I take a pragmatic approach to tables and columnar design: use a single
table with a single row and as many cells as I need (although invariably a
max of 3). Gets rid of all sorts of cross browser problems. I have had a
couple of Gecko purists efforting a table-less design for me just to prove
it can be done. What's the point? They've both since agreed it's far
simpler, involves far less fudging and is far more efficient to use the
single table approach -- especially as I use alternate skinning
incorporating vertical borders: www.seowebsitepromotion.com. This layout
uses two elastic and one fixed width column. Why fixed for column 3? Because
I need to accommodate as much text as possible in the first two columns and
use the right column to display fixed size images, and I need to maintain an
aesthetically satisfactory display at 640, 800 and 1024+ screen resolutions.

CSS isn't up to natural multi-columnar structures without a lot of faffing
around. Once CSS evolves to adopt columns and browsers incorporate the
changes I'll happily use them. Until then it's a matter of commonsense. I
don't need to prove a point, I just make sites standards-compliant and
accessible in as great a range or browsers (including Lynx) as possible.

Mike Pepper
Accessible Web Developer
www.seowebsitepromotion.com

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Bert Doorn
Sent: 09 May 2004 16:23
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [WSG] Forms, labels  headers


Hi,

 are you asking why using tables for layout is stupid? :-)
 http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/

I know using multiple tables, nested n levels deep is stupid and results
in lots of excess code.  So is using font tags etc.  That's why I don't
design that way.  But sometimes it is (to me) unavoidable to use a table,
because the alternatives just don't work consistently enough  across
browsers.

Thanks for the link.  http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/14transitional.html
sums it up for me, while the pages following it don't apply to sites I
design.  I've seen plenty like that, including a site that has a home page
with 40k of HTML that includes 40 tables, some of which only hold ONE word
(4 characters of content hidden in a total of 262 bytes of tag soup)

Regards
--
Bert Doorn, Better Web Design
www.betterwebdesign.com.au
Fast-loading, user-friendly websites






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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-11 Thread Neerav
hear hear .. multi-columnnar sites are much easier to do with a single 
wrap around table and work cross-browser than using a CSS for the sake 
of it approach creating multi column layouts and faffing about s=as 
Mike says

standards are all well and good, and where possible I have no problem 
with adhering to the letter and spirit of webs standards, but sometimes 
things like wrap around tables are indispensible.

--
Neerav Bhatt
http://www.bhatt.id.au
Web Development  IT consultancy
Mike Pepper wrote:
Bert,

I take a pragmatic approach to tables and columnar design: use a single
table with a single row and as many cells as I need (although invariably a
max of 3). Gets rid of all sorts of cross browser problems. I have had a
couple of Gecko purists efforting a table-less design for me just to prove
it can be done. What's the point? They've both since agreed it's far
simpler, involves far less fudging and is far more efficient to use the
single table approach -- especially as I use alternate skinning
incorporating vertical borders: www.seowebsitepromotion.com. This layout
uses two elastic and one fixed width column. Why fixed for column 3? Because
I need to accommodate as much text as possible in the first two columns and
use the right column to display fixed size images, and I need to maintain an
aesthetically satisfactory display at 640, 800 and 1024+ screen resolutions.
CSS isn't up to natural multi-columnar structures without a lot of faffing
around. Once CSS evolves to adopt columns and browsers incorporate the
changes I'll happily use them. Until then it's a matter of commonsense. I
don't need to prove a point, I just make sites standards-compliant and
accessible in as great a range or browsers (including Lynx) as possible.
Mike Pepper
Accessible Web Developer
www.seowebsitepromotion.com
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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-11 Thread James Ellis
1. I have a multi-column layout... when I psuh the site to a layout for 
handheld I'll turn off the floats that handle the columns. The content 
will then cascade down the page. This will involve adding a new 
stylesheet and linking to it via a media attr, a user agent sniff or a 
hyperlink for the user.

2. I have a multi-column layout... when I push the site to a layout for 
handheld I'll have to change the markup so that the table rows have only 
one cell in them each. This will also affect the screen and print 
versions of the site (so I'll have to do mutiple markup for the same 
content).

Which one is easier and better in the long run?

faffing around with rowspans and colspans can be frustrating as well. 
The difference being that one method has a future, the other doesn't.

Cheers
James
Neerav wrote:

hear hear .. multi-columnnar sites are much easier to do with a single 
wrap around table and work cross-browser than using a CSS for the sake 
of it approach creating multi column layouts and faffing about s=as 
Mike says

standards are all well and good, and where possible I have no problem 
with adhering to the letter and spirit of webs standards, but sometimes 
things like wrap around tables are indispensible.

 

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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-11 Thread Michael Donnermeyer
using a CSS for the sake of it approach creating multi column 
layouts and faffing about
I don't look at it that way...it's quite easy to get everything to work 
right without tables if you're willing to put the effort in.  Since mid 
03 I have stopped using tables for anything other than what they're 
supposed to contain...tabular data.  That's their purpose in the world, 
just like ours is to pay outrageous taxes and work our butts off for 
low pay (isn't it?).  I've had very few issues arise since...less than 
the layouts before, that's for sure.

The worst thing that ever happened to the web was the idea of using 
tables for layout, although frames are a very close second.  
Accessibility should be the primary concern of every developer for the 
web.  The web was intended to make sharing information/data/etc. simple 
and far-reaching.

Why a developer would make so much more work for him/her self is beyond 
me when there's a valid, easy, better, standardized alternative.

~MD



On May 11, 2004, at 20:49, James Ellis wrote:

1. I have a multi-column layout... when I psuh the site to a layout 
for handheld I'll turn off the floats that handle the columns. The 
content will then cascade down the page. This will involve adding a 
new stylesheet and linking to it via a media attr, a user agent sniff 
or a hyperlink for the user.

2. I have a multi-column layout... when I push the site to a layout 
for handheld I'll have to change the markup so that the table rows 
have only one cell in them each. This will also affect the screen and 
print versions of the site (so I'll have to do mutiple markup for the 
same content).

Which one is easier and better in the long run?

faffing around with rowspans and colspans can be frustrating as well. 
The difference being that one method has a future, the other doesn't.

Cheers
James
Neerav wrote:

hear hear .. multi-columnnar sites are much easier to do with a 
single wrap around table and work cross-browser than using a CSS for 
the sake of it approach creating multi column layouts and faffing 
about s=as Mike says

standards are all well and good, and where possible I have no problem 
with adhering to the letter and spirit of webs standards, but 
sometimes things like wrap around tables are indispensible.


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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-11 Thread Andrew Sione Taumoefolau
On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 21:19 -0400, Michael Donnermeyer wrote:
 The worst thing that ever happened to the web was the idea of using 
 tables for layout...

That's a bold statement. Without designers using tables for layout, the
web would have been a boring place visually for a very long time. We're
now able to produce documents that are visually attractive, accessible
and structurally meaningful, but this just wasn't possible in the past
(without CSS, structurally meaningful documents look really plain!).

If advanced formatting had not been possible using HTML, we would be
looking at a very different web today, and it would not be an open,
accessible, semantically-conscious one. It would be Flash and Java,
Flash and Java as far as the eye can see. People want pretty.

I was happy when I was able to remove presentational tables from my
toolbox, but I was appreciative of them when they were all I had. Don't
be hatin'! They got us where we are today! :)

Cheers,

Andrew Taumoefolau

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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-11 Thread Jake Badger
It's not as though if we hadn't had tables for layout we would have sat around
doing nothing. If it hadn't been for table layout CSS would have been developed
sooner and taken up a lot faster.

Quoting Andrew Sione Taumoefolau [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

 On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 21:19 -0400, Michael Donnermeyer wrote:
  The worst thing that ever happened to the web was the idea of using
  tables for layout...

 That's a bold statement. Without designers using tables for layout, the
 web would have been a boring place visually for a very long time. We're
 now able to produce documents that are visually attractive, accessible
 and structurally meaningful, but this just wasn't possible in the past
 (without CSS, structurally meaningful documents look really plain!).

 If advanced formatting had not been possible using HTML, we would be
 looking at a very different web today, and it would not be an open,
 accessible, semantically-conscious one. It would be Flash and Java,
 Flash and Java as far as the eye can see. People want pretty.

 I was happy when I was able to remove presentational tables from my
 toolbox, but I was appreciative of them when they were all I had. Don't
 be hatin'! They got us where we are today! :)

 Cheers,

 Andrew Taumoefolau

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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-09 Thread Manuel González Noriega
El dom, 09-05-2004 a las 05:56, Bert Doorn escribió:

 Really, what is the practical (as opposed to philosophical) difference
 between the two methods? 

Hi Bert,

are you asking why using tables for layout is stupid? :-)

http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/

-- 
Manuel González Noriega
Simplelógica, construcción web  
URL: http://simplelogica.net
EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
TELEFONO: (+34) 985 22 12 65
   
Logicola es el weblog de Simplelógica http://simplelogica.net/logicola/

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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-09 Thread Bert Doorn
Hi,

 are you asking why using tables for layout is stupid? :-)
 http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/

I know using multiple tables, nested n levels deep is stupid and results
in lots of excess code.  So is using font tags etc.  That's why I don't
design that way.  But sometimes it is (to me) unavoidable to use a table,
because the alternatives just don't work consistently enough  across
browsers.   

Thanks for the link.  http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/14transitional.html
sums it up for me, while the pages following it don't apply to sites I
design.  I've seen plenty like that, including a site that has a home page
with 40k of HTML that includes 40 tables, some of which only hold ONE word
(4 characters of content hidden in a total of 262 bytes of tag soup)

Regards
-- 
Bert Doorn, Better Web Design
www.betterwebdesign.com.au
Fast-loading, user-friendly websites



  


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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-09 Thread Kay Smoljak
 I know using multiple tables, nested n levels deep is 
 stupid and results
 in lots of excess code.  So is using font tags etc.  That's 
 why I don't
 design that way.  But sometimes it is (to me) unavoidable to 
 use a table,
 because the alternatives just don't work consistently enough  across
 browsers.   

This is the approach recommended for people getting started with css layouts
in Zeldman's most excellent tome, Designing with web standards. I think
it's a good approach... I usually go for a fully css-positioned layout
first, but sometimes extenuating (sp?) circumstances force us to use a
table. For example, just last week we had a lovely three column layout, but
unfortunately Macromedia Contribute wouldn't allow one of the columns to be
edited, so we had to change the floated columns to a single three column
table. It's not ideal, but not exactly the end of the world either.

K.

--
Kay Smoljak
http://kay.smoljak.com

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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-09 Thread Ryan Christie
I seriously just have to add, those toons are priceless :) excellent 
resource Manuel!

-Ryan

Manuel González Noriega wrote:

El dom, 09-05-2004 a las 05:56, Bert Doorn escribió:

 

Really, what is the practical (as opposed to philosophical) difference
between the two methods? 
   

Hi Bert,

are you asking why using tables for layout is stupid? :-)

http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/

 

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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Tenley Shewmake
Hi Bert,

With Netscape 7.01 your select boxes are not working - they get 
selected, but the options don't drop down and cannot be chosen.  Is 
this a fieldset issue? Visited Russ's example too, but he's not using 
select boxes.

Bert Doorn wrote:
Russ (maxdesign) suggested I
used fieldset (and label).  An example of how I did it can be found at
http://www.betterwebdesign.com.au/request-quote.asp - may give you some
ideas.


Best,

Tenley

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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Bert Doorn
G'day

 With Netscape 7.01 your select boxes are not working - they get 
 selected, but the options don't drop down and cannot be chosen.  

Hmmm.  Interesting.  The request a quote page has valid XHTML1.1 and the
CSS is valid too.  It works fine for me in Mozilla 1.6 and Firefox (on Win2K
and WinXP respectively).  Is this ALL select elements, or just one or two of
them?  

I might revert to tables for layout - no headaches with those.  

-- 
Bert Doorn, Better Web Design
www.betterwebdesign.com.au
Fast-loading, user-friendly websites



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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread russ - maxdesign
 I might revert to tables for layout - no headaches with those.

quote
Stop! Before you do anything, the most important thing you can do for your
learning process is accept that a) it¹s going to take time, and b) you will
be frustrated along the way.
/quote

http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2004/04/30/a_roadmap_to/#000571

Russ

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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Bert Doorn
Thanks Russ

 quote
 Stop! Before you do anything, the most important thing you can 
 do for your learning process is accept that a) it¹s going to take 
 time, and b) you will be frustrated along the way. /quote

Been there and I do agree in principle - I like compact code that makes
sense.  But if it takes me 5 hours of experimenting to get a CSS Only
layout working in multiple browsers, I can't help but think why bother.
Especially when that same layout takes 5 minutes using tables and most
visitors can't tell the difference.  

No, I won't nest tables 3, 4, 5 or (as with a template one of my clients
sent me today) 6 deep with lots of other ancient artifacts in it.  The
template had no doctype and over 100 errors in HTML4.01 Transitional - an
absolute shocker, yet it looked fine in all browsers I have access to (it
was even usable in Lynx, which did report bad HTML)

Anyway...  Still puzzled why the selects in
www.betterwebdesign.com.au/request-quote.asp don't work in Netscape 7. 

-- 
Bert Doorn, Better Web Design
www.betterwebdesign.com.au
Fast-loading, user-friendly websites


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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Tenley Shewmake
Hi Bert,

Beautiful layout btw.

Bert Doorn wrote:
Hmmm.  Interesting.  The request a quote page has valid XHTML1.1 and the
CSS is valid too.  It works fine for me in Mozilla 1.6 and Firefox (on Win2K
and WinXP respectively).  Is this ALL select elements, or just one or two of
them? 
It is all of them do not work. The only other unusual thing is that in 
Netscape 7.01 the mouse scroll wheel doesn't work either. I viewed the 
site with MSIE6 and everything is working fine. Not enough of a css 
master to tell you right off... but I made a test page with your 
default.css stylesheet and only div id=#Main with the select 
fieldsets, and the select boxes DO work in Netscape7.01 ...

Best,

Tenley





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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Leslie Riggs

  quote
  Stop! Before you do anything, the most important thing you can 
  do for your learning process is accept that a) it¹s going to take 
  time, and b) you will be frustrated along the way. /quote
 
 Been there and I do agree in principle - I like compact code 
 that makes
 sense.  But if it takes me 5 hours of experimenting to get a 
 CSS Only
 layout working in multiple browsers, I can't help but think 
 why bother.

Jumping in here.  I'm no CSS expert by any means but I've been learning
and the more I do, the more I retain, so I get better as time goes on.
It does take time, as Russ said, and I get frustrated lots of times.  I
occasionally hit a wall with something, but I'm not going back to
tables, not when I've seen the enormous benefits that can be realized by
using CSS for layout.  Tables have their place - and it's NOT layout.

I've also done the But I have no TME!' wail, too.  Believe me,
you'll waste a lot less time later, if you stick with learning and doing
CSS for layout now.  There IS a way to do what you want.

 Anyway...  Still puzzled why the selects in
 www.betterwebdesign.com.au/request-quote.asp don't work in 
 Netscape 7. 


Were you talking about Netscape 7.0 or 7.1?  I went to look at your site
in 7.1/Win, seems it's working fine on my machine.

Leslie

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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread James Ellis
Bert

Works for me in Mozilla 1.7 and Firefox. My OS is Fedora.

As for tables, use them for tabular data, not presentation. cells can't 
exist outside their tables - boxes can be placed anywhere on the page 
allowing you to completely separate the presentation logic from the content.
Try picking up a site done in tables and re-presenting it so that you 
have two sites with one code base... or rejigging the markup so you can 
re-present the site on a device and a screen  that's the part that 
takes time.

It can be frustrating, but when you roll a whole new site out in one day 
by copying, pasting and altering a CSS file then you'll kiss 
presentation tables goodbye. Tables are still the best things for doing 
webmail listings, medal tallies, invoices etc etc and can't be beat in 
that regard.

That 5 hours of experimenting can be put to great use down the line.

HTH
James
Bert Doorn wrote:

Thanks Russ

 

quote
Stop! Before you do anything, the most important thing you can 
do for your learning process is accept that a) it¹s going to take 
time, and b) you will be frustrated along the way. /quote
   

Been there and I do agree in principle - I like compact code that makes
sense.  But if it takes me 5 hours of experimenting to get a CSS Only
layout working in multiple browsers, I can't help but think why bother.
Especially when that same layout takes 5 minutes using tables and most
visitors can't tell the difference.  

No, I won't nest tables 3, 4, 5 or (as with a template one of my clients
sent me today) 6 deep with lots of other ancient artifacts in it.  The
template had no doctype and over 100 errors in HTML4.01 Transitional - an
absolute shocker, yet it looked fine in all browsers I have access to (it
was even usable in Lynx, which did report bad HTML)
Anyway...  Still puzzled why the selects in
www.betterwebdesign.com.au/request-quote.asp don't work in Netscape 7. 

 

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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Robert Reed
Selects work fine with Netscape 7.1 on Win XP.

Rob

Robert Reed
SiteStart
www.sitestart.co.uk

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Tenley Shewmake
Sent: 08 May 2004 12:42
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [WSG] Forms, labels  headers


Hi Bert,

With Netscape 7.01 your select boxes are not working - they get 
selected, but the options don't drop down and cannot be chosen.  Is 
this a fieldset issue? Visited Russ's example too, but he's not using 
select boxes.

Bert Doorn wrote:
 Russ (maxdesign) suggested I
 used fieldset (and label).  An example of how I did it can be found at
 http://www.betterwebdesign.com.au/request-quote.asp - may give you some
 ideas.


Best,

Tenley


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Re: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Rev. Bob 'Bob' Crispen
The voices are telling me that Bert Doorn said on 5/8/2004 9:28 AM:

Been there and I do agree in principle - I like compact code that makes
sense.  But if it takes me 5 hours of experimenting to get a CSS Only
layout working in multiple browsers, I can't help but think why bother.
Because the second time you do it, it won't take 5 hours.

Especially when that same layout takes 5 minutes using tables and most
visitors can't tell the difference.  
You have a defined, repeatable process (even if it's only fire up 
$STEAM_AGE_WEB_PAGE_EDITOR) for making tag-soup web pages.  You 
don't have a defined process for making standards-based web pages. 
Until you do, you're comparing apples and oranges and complaining to 
us that the oranges we're showing you aren't red enough.
--
Rev. Bob Bob Crispen
bob at crispen dot org
Ex Cathedra Weblog: http://blog.crispen.org/

Some people just don't know how to drive... I call these people
Everybody But Me
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RE: [WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-08 Thread Bert Doorn
G'day

 Especially when that same layout takes 5 minutes using tables and most 
 visitors can't tell the difference.

 You have a defined, repeatable process (even if it's only fire up 
 $STEAM_AGE_WEB_PAGE_EDITOR) for making tag-soup web pages.  

What I was talking about is not tag-soup (although it depends on your
definition) like the template my client asked me to use.  

I don't nest tables 6 deep or use elements like font and center or
attributes like bgcolor.  All I meant is to use a single table to define the
overall layout, marked up with CSS to set up backgrounds, borders, spacing
etc.  It requires NO kludges to get three columns all the same height and
with different backgrounds, whereas with three divs side by side we run into
all sorts of problems with browser interpretations.

Really, what is the practical (as opposed to philosophical) difference
between the two methods? 

-- 
Bert Doorn, Better Web Design
www.betterwebdesign.com.au
Fast-loading, user-friendly websites



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[WSG] Forms, labels headers

2004-05-06 Thread Jack Kennard
I have a huge form page
https://www.willtrav.com/form-corp-profile.php
that uses table headers to define the text boxes
and how do I or should I  include labels on those
text boxes?
--
Jack Kennard
Web Designer  Marketing
dba/ Web Sailing Designs
http://www.websailingdesigns.com
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