Posted by Martin Jay on 06/09/06 13:27

In message <4et2keF1gmc4aU1@individual.net>, Paul Lautman
<paul.lautman@btinternet.com> writes
>Martin Jay wrote:
>>
>> Browsers will shuffle the contents of tables around to try and get
>> them to fit.
>>
>> In the example you posted you've given the second table a width of
>> 440px, and the first column of that table same width. That doesn't
>> leave any room of the second column, so browsers will shrink the first
>> column to try and make room for the second.

>OK I can see that I cocked up when trying to simplify the table before
>posting. The same problem happens with the pair below, even though I have
>got the widths correct this time. How do I specify that I want the widths as
>I ask for them?
>
><TABLE WIDTH="740" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="1">
> <TR>
> <TD WIDTH="440" VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=CENTER>
> <IMG SRC="images/title1.gif" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="100" VSPACE="0"
>HSPACE="0" BORDER="0">
> </TD>
> <td width="100" style="visibility:visible"><A HREF="mail.htm"><IMG
>SRC="images/mail.gif" WIDTH="123" HEIGHT="62" VSPACE="0" HSPACE="0"
>BORDER="0"></A>
> </td>
> <td width=200">&nbsp;</td>
> </TR>
></table>
>
><TABLE WIDTH="540" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="1">
> <TR>
> <TD WIDTH="440" VALIGN=TOP ALIGN=CENTER>
> <IMG SRC="images/title1.gif" WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="100" VSPACE="0"
>HSPACE="0" BORDER="0">
> </TD>
> <td width="100" style="visibility:visible">
> <A HREF="mail.htm"><IMG SRC="images/mail.gif" WIDTH="123" HEIGHT="62"
>VSPACE="0" HSPACE="0" BORDER="0"></A>
> </td>
> </TR>
></table>

Well, you're still trying to put an image with a width of 123px inside a
cell that has a given a width of 100px, but I guess that was just a
small slip you made when preparing this for posting here.

Something you haven't taken into consideration is that cell padding and
borders all take up space, so while in the first table
440px+100px+200px=740px, where's the space for the padding and border
going to come from?

I've stripped away all that and had a play with your tables, but get
varying results in IE and Firefox. I think, at best, <td width="100">
is only a suggested width to the browser.

To make everything line up you'll probably have to use one table or DIVs
instead.
--
Martin Jay
Phone/SMS: +44 7740 191877
Fax: +44 870 915 2124

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