------------------------------------ The issue at hand is that [productname] is completely compliant, but is more modern than HTML 4.01. If you remove the doctype tag, all your rendering issues should be resolved. Using one of our older and backwards compatible menu packages might be the only solution if you must have the doctype tag. However the doctype tag is really a formality used for checking compliancy and nothing more. Removing the tag will solve your rendering problems. ------------------------------------
I was not aware that a DTD was a mere formality. In my experience, operating without a DTD puts most browsers into Quirks mode which, by its very definition, isn't a standards compliant rendering mode.
Basically, my purpose for sending this is to acquire more understanding of the purpose of the DTD. Is it there to set the rendering mode, or is it, as this support person purports, simply a formality?
Russ's response covers the purpose of adding a DTD to your HTML code (DTD meaning Document Type Declaration in this situation - not to be mistaken for Document Type Definition, to which the declaration actually refers).
A now common 'feature' of DTD's is that it puts modern browsers into a specific rendering mode (quirks, almost-standards or standards-compliant). [2] You already know this part, I understand, but this effect of a DTD is not what DTD's 'are there for'. It's just a handy way for browsers to deal with the fact that the _large_ majority of web pages is a 4th generation legacy that just isn't going to go away. And it's pretty hard to market a browser that renders only a handful of real-world sites (apart from all the geek webdev blogs ;-).
So -here it is- the world is not perfect, the majority of web users still surf with IE5.x or 6, the latter possibly having more issues with standards-compliant code than with tagsoup. [2] Some web developers purposefully keep IE6 out of standards compliance mode, because this saves you from coding two separate IE css files in some cases.
In this particular case, you may want to:
- try and find out to which standard the menu is coded and use that for your own code as well;
- or try and convince the makers of the menu to provide you with a HTML4.01 version (could be hard to achieve ;-);
- or ditch the menu (which apparently is out of your reach);
- or ditch the doctype.
I'd try the first option, but when that fails, stick with the last. Pursuing standards is not the way to go if this could result in a majority (!) of your visitors not being able to use the menu normally.
[1] http://hsivonen.iki.fi/doctype/ [2] http://www.positioniseverything.net/
Jeroen
-- vizi fotografie & grafisch ontwerp - http://www.vizi.nl/
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