table border style problems

[CLF]

Hi All,

I seem to have come across a strange problem in IE 6 with two sites I've
been working on. I've used style properties for both table and cell
borders to set the border style and width. At Star-outdoors.com (still
in progress) the borders appear to show just fine but, at
test.berninafourcorners.com (still in progress, natch), the borders show
only as very faint lines in IE. They show just fine in FF, Netscape and
Opera so I'm not sure why the difference for the Bernina site in IE.
Any thoughts?

TIA...

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

Your tables have an inline style
style="border-left-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px"

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| Hi All,
|
| I seem to have come across a strange problem in IE 6 with two sites I've
| been working on. I've used style properties for both table and cell
| borders to set the border style and width. At Star-outdoors.com (still
| in progress) the borders appear to show just fine but, at
| test.berninafourcorners.com (still in progress, natch), the borders show
| only as very faint lines in IE. They show just fine in FF, Netscape and
| Opera so I'm not sure why the difference for the Bernina site in IE.
| Any thoughts?
|
| TIA...

 

[CLF]

Hi Stefan,

And IE doesn't support this? Both tables were done in the same manner
but one shows correctly and one doesn't. I'm confused.

 

[Murray]

You realize that most of your visitors won't see that horrible Java Applet
you have? Please get rid of it. It adds nothing to your site except weight
(and plenty of it, too).

<table dir="ltr" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tr><!--msnavigation-->
<td valign="top"><div align="center">
<table width="717" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#000000"
style="border-left-width: 1px; border-right-style: solid;
border-right-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px;
border-bottom-width: 1px">
<tr>
<td rowspan="7" valign="top" bgcolor="#000000"
style="border-bottom-width: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 3px;
border-left-style:double; border-left-width:3px; border-right-style:double;
border-right-width:3px" width="145">

You have defined border widths without consistently defining style or color.
That doesn't work. Each border needs a style, color, and width style.

If you did this -

table.special {
border:1px solid white;
width:100%;
}

td.double {
border: 1px double white;
border-top:none;
border-bottom:none;
padding-left:0;
padding-right:3px;
width:145px;
}

(assuming you want white borders)

then you could reduce that messy code to this -

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr><!--msnavigation-->
<td valign="top"><div align="center">
<table width="717" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#000000"
class="special">
<tr>
<td class="double" rowspan="7" valign="top" bgcolor="#000000">

And both IE and FF would show your borders.

 

[CLF]

Hi Murray,

While I appreciate your critique of my java applet, (and I did clean it
up so it looks better), the client likes it so it will probably stay. As
for my table problem, it seems that Internet explorer doesn't apply
the color settings specified in my external style sheet like Opera,
Firefox and Netscape do. I did go to the table on the index page of
test.berninafourcorners.com and specify "red" as my border color but
that doesn't seem to make any difference.

 

[Murray]

the client likes it so it will probably stay.

Does he understand that some huge percent of his visitors (perhaps close to
100%?) will only see an ugly gray box?

As for my table problem, it seems that Internet explorer doesn't apply the
color settings specified in my external style sheet like Opera, Firefox
and Netscape do. I did go to the table on the index page of
test.berninafourcorners.com and specify "red" as my border color but that
doesn't seem to make any difference.

Sorry to tell you, but it's your implementation. If you do it the way I
recommended, you will see no difference. You have to specify style, color
and width for each border....

 

[CLF]

Hi Murray,

I did correct the table border problem (or am in the process of doing
it). I guess what I'm saying is you're right, you do have to specify it
for IE to display it correctly but, not for Opera nor FF. Both of them
were able to display the red table borders correctly for
test.berninafourcorners.com w/o my having to explicitly specify the
border color. That being said, I've gone and created definitions in my
ext. style sheets for some of the cells I commonly put borders around.
As for the java applet, he wants something that will catch the eye a bit
for advertising purposes and it was either java or flash. This was
easier to implement than flash and probably less likely to be blocked
than a java applet. Anyway, I appreciate your time and expertise.

 

[Murray]

This was easier to implement than flash and probably less likely to be

blocked than a java applet.

Well, this makes no sense. Java applets are a mistake. You have done a
disservice to your client by allowing him to think it will work for his
site. It will not.

Do it in Flash, for heavens sakes....

You must specify style, color, and width for borders to appear in any
browser.

See here, for example -

http://www.murraytestsite.com/tableborders.html

Look in all browsers and tell me what you see (look at the code, too).

 

[CLF]

Hi Murray,

Your tables appear as you would expect them to appear. That doesn't
change the fact that, prior to my correcting my tables, they appeared as
I thought they should appear in FF and Opera but not IE. Perhaps the
difference is I use an external style sheet that sets font color, styles
etc.... Regardless, I've already acknowledged that you're correct and I
appreciate your knowledge in helping me fix this problem.

I'm curious as to why you think flash is better than Java? I realize
that IE doesn't natively play java anymore but, given java's popularity,
wouldn't most people have java already loaded? After all, won't they
have to download flash if they don't have it as well? Are there other
considerations in using flash vs. Java? Security settings maybe? If
flash is indeed the best option, would your recommend using something
like the Flash Basic program from Adobe? Appreciate your help...

 

[Murray]

they appeared as I thought they should appear in FF and Opera but not IE.

This is (no doubt) because of some previously defined style that was
cascading into the table/cells. Having only seen your snippet of code, I
can only tell you that this snippet alone would not produce the desired
effect.

I'm curious as to why you think flash is better than Java?

Because the install base for the Flash plugin is higher than 50% (higher
than 90% if you believe Macromedia), and the install base for the Java
engine is close to 0%. I find that compelling.

given java's popularity, wouldn't most people have java already loaded?

You must be (I hope) confusing Java with javascript. The two are as
different as fish and bicycles. Java is neither popular nor already loaded
on most systems. Javascript is natively supported in all browsers (well all
that support it! 8).

would your recommend using something like the Flash Basic program from
Adobe?

To accomplish this effect, I would recommend using Swish (google it). Or I
would use a <marquee> tag, which is supported by modern browsers and IE.

 

[CLF]

Hi Murray,

I wondered about Java vs. javascript. That clears things up a bit. I
thought about using a marquee tag but FP says it's only supported by IE.
Didn't realize it was more widely supported now. I appreciate the tip

 

[Murray]

Good luck!

By the way, check here -

http://www.murraytestsite.com/marquee.html

and see how many browsers show it....