Posted by brunascle.maps on 04/06/07 15:57

On Apr 6, 9:38 am, "cluthz" <WHATEEVVE...@by.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> After being told off in the NG a few times I'm doing my best to adhere to
> standards. I'm reading my CSS definitive guide book which seems great, but
> there is a lot of material to get through.
>
> In the short term I need to implement a webform (the user of the form will
> enter search criteria for a database and the amount of data will cover three
> columns).
>
> I really want to be able to make the interface clear for the users, give
> them the ability to customise it by changing style sheets, make it sizeable
> in firefox etc. all the things the experts in this group recommend.
>
> Ideally I want to make each of the columns a single div so they can be
> positioned freely by me.
> All of the divs are contained within a form.
> Ideally if I wanted to add another section to the page I could just create a
> new div within the form and positioning this section where I like.
> I use dreamweaver 2004 MX for layout and my php code. I like it and do not
> want to change.
>
> Bearing in mind that I have to do this quite quickly, I am trying to be good
> and learn as much as possible, what is a summary of techniques I should use
> to control the layout (to out another way, if I'm to learn css subject, what
> to concentrate on).
> Prior to this group I would have used absolute positioning of each div
> (seems to work great and give me maximum flexibility), but I know this is
> bad long term.
>
> So in summary, if making a three column webform, what is the best, standards
> conforming way to implement this.
>
> Any input welcome, but if too vague to question not clear enough to answer
> fair enough, just concentrate on the summary question.
>
> Cheers

i've read that the most standards conforming way is to have 3 divs,
one after the other, and in the CSS give them the values float: left
you even have to put the further-right one float: left, because
otherwise the bottom of it might wrap underneath the column to the
left. IIRC, you're also supposed to manually set the height of each
column in the CSS, but i cant remember why.

this is the way i do it, but personally i think the standards for this
are kind of flawed. it logically doesnt make sense to me to have to
set the furthest-right column to float: left. and also, when you do it
this way, you often have to tell the next element after the columns
that it shouldnt be placed to the right of the furthest-right column.
to do that, you have to add clear: both to the CSS of the next
element. i really dont like that, becase you dont always know what
element is going to come next. and sometimes it forces me to put a <br
style="clear: both" /> right after the columns, which i dont like
either.

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