Hi there,

I have this problem that is making me suicidal.

I started designing my site and sometimes after I paste some text in a layout cell, upon preview in ie will show that the layout cell expanded. I tried everything to make the cell stay the right size but no matter what one will pop up sooner or later that expands for no aparent reason. The fix I found was to just decrease the size of the cell a little so that it wasn't touching the edge of the layout table but that only worked for so long and then more cells just starting expanding.

What am I doing wrong? I have worked on templates before that never had this problem but now that I am making one from scratch, I have to deal with this issue. I feel like I am trying to sculpt a statue out of gel. Everything just keeps falling apart.

What could I be doing wrong?

here is the webpage I am working on:

avistudios.com/newwebpage/html/ihatethisstuff2.htm


Any help would be much appreciated. Heck, it might just save my life!

your website address doesn't work.

oops,

avistudios.com/newwebsite/html/ihatethisstuff2.htm

Are using tables or divs or layers?
The easiest would be to have a table with 3 columns to work with. I would set the table to the same size of your top picture 784px I think and let that be my reference.
ckeck this out:



<table width="784" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-size:10px; font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ">
<tr>
<td width="150"><img src="" alt="" name="top_image" width="784" height="175" id="top_image"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="784" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-size:10px; font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ">
<tr valign="top" style="font-size:10px; font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ">
<td><p align="left">a.v.i studios is proud to offer a variety of wedding specialty services in Northern Arizona, and Laughlin Nevada. We undertake each project with precision and flexablity to guarantee a perfect wedding expierence. </p>
<p align="left">Each service is crafted with the bride & groom in mind becuase weddings are unique and may require special adjustments. We handle all of the techincal details so you don't have to. Requesting a service is as simple as using one of our webforms or giving us a phone call. </p>
<p align="left">Our friendly staff can assist you with any questions or comments you may have. </p>
<p align="left">" Our main goal is to provide user friendly services that remain cost effective and meet the needs of the customer" - Jonathan Nelson, President </p></td>
<td width="170"><div align="center"><img name="image1" src="" width="150" height="100" alt=""></div></td>
<td> <p><a href="weddingvideo.htm">Videotaping </a></p>
<p><a href="weddingvideo.htm">Learn how we can turn your special day into an unforgettable video memory using the latest technologies. </a>While a photo captures a moment in time, video allows you to record time in motion. Video also contains sound and voices as well, which include the vows, one of the most special and meaningful moments of the ceremony. Relive and hold on to the memories of your wedding day forever! </p>
<a href="weddingvideo.htm">Learn More </a> </td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td> </td>
<td width="170"><div align="center"></div></td>
<td><p><a href="slideshow.htm">Slideshow Presentation </a></p>
<p><a href="slideshow.htm">Entertain your family and friends with a full motion photo slidewhow. </a><a href="html/weddingvideo.htm"></a>We can put the slide show on dvds or showcase it at your wedding with our mobile video equipment. At your reception, a slide show can provide a great backdrop for your guests to see as they dine and dance. After your wedding, we can help you put a slide show together from all your wedding pictures and even set it to your favorite music soundtrack! </p>
<p><a href="slideshow.htm">Learn More </a></p>
<p>  </p></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td> </td>
<td width="170"><div align="center"></div></td>
<td><p><a href="weddingfavors.htm">Wedding Favors </a></p>
<p><a href="weddingfavors.htm">A unique idea for a wedding favor is creating a personalized DVD or CD that features music, video, and photographs from the bride and groom. </a> The cost of DVD and CD is comparable to other wedding favors. We even offer a professional looking DVD and CD keep case with full-color printing on the cover and disc face. Quantity discounts are available. <br>
</p>
<a href="weddingfavors.htm">Learn More </a> </td>
</tr>
</table>

That actually worked pretty well. I am trying to redesign it now and implicate that system. This has been so frustrating but I think the three colums deal works pretty good. I still can't figure out why the templates I had in the past never suffered from this problem and I really messed with those. It I could resize and position any cell and it would look the same upon preview. Not now.

I am thinking about buying studio 8 if it fixes this issue.

Thanks a lot!

Oh, and I think I am using tables. I am not completely sure so please excuse my ignorance. I have been just using the layout tables and cells in mx to create the 'layout' of the page.

You can can make your own templates. Once you are happy with your layout, create editable regions and save the file as template. Then you can start applying your templates. I would suggest before you spend any money, have a look at some template tutorials and try to understand how they work.

Also, before I forget, check your image size on the small images. I noticed they are 145.. by 777px. Is that right??? perhaps the problems is that that your images are sized too big. I would check some tutorials and start fresh, but that's me.

Cheers,

Javier

I never thought of saving my stuff as templates. The way I build my pages is just start one and then modify it when I need new pages. I have about 60% of the site done but I ran into some problems with firworks html so I had to rebuild it. I am going to have to try this.

Can my images be too big? I Just have one image that is about the size you mentioned which is the main banner. Could this be a problem?

I based this layout from a template I downloaded a long time ago and it had one image that was 784 by 175. This new site is from scratch but I used the same size banner image from the template. I have been editing these webpages using a 24" monitor with 1920 x 1200, maybe that is the problem. I tested it on a normal 1024 by 768 monitor and it looked pretty danm good.

Well, after pasting your code, I have rebuilt the webpage and everything is working great. This is where I am at now:

avistudios.com/newwebsite/html/newtest.htm

That table layout you made really helped and has so far solved the problem. I also bought studio 8 but it does the same thing that mx does but at least it's running more stable.

well now I am back to hell again. Its so odd, no matter what I do, a frame will just expand for no reason at all. It looks great on dreamweaver but one or two layout cells always expand on preview.

I just can't figure out why. Its always the same cells too. The other templates I was using never ever had this problem!

oh well, I think I just need to learn more about these layout cells.

here is another example of my problem:

avistudios.com/newwebsite/html/anothertest2.html

It seemed that you were in the right path but now that I see the code for your last posted link...mmmmm
The table that holds the info is so divided that it is hard to control. I would suggest you to break the layout in 3 tables:
menu, header image and content.

Content page can be divided as the previous example I posted. Simpify as much as you can. Remember the KISS rule = Keep it simple stupid. with a few tables and a little CSS you can do almost any layout you want.

Why don't you use DW instead of Fireworks. DW is for creating website, Fireworks is for the graphics that will go in that website of yours.

ok, I am going to try to break up the page into about 3 or 4 seperate layout tables. The one thing I have to do is make sure the whole page has a 1px black border so its just going to have to be a bunch of embedded tables.

I love that kiss rule. I could of used that a long time ago. I used to love building these things but for some reason this has been nothing but trouble.

I will try using nothing but seperate tables and see how that goes. This setup worked:

avistudios.com/newwebsite/html/index3.htm

But the minute I deleted the top menu and replaced it with the fireworks menu, all hell broke loose. Before though, I could do "whatever" I wanted without the fear of screwing the whole thing up. What makes these new pages so touchy? I will never know.

Thanks for the help, and I will be sure to post the site if I ever get this figured out.

oh and about fireworks, I use it only for making the menus. Its just easier to make all the buttons and layout of the menu in fireworks and importing it into dw. I use dw for creating the actual webpage.

I have actually thought about using dw alone to setup the rollovers and such for the menu but it just so easy it is to do it in fireworks. I don't think that is the problem though because in that link I just posted, the problem starts the minute you "delete" the top menu. I thought it was a fireworks html thing until I saw that the problem exsited before it was even imported.

It's so odd.



Edited by - jonathannelson on 20 Oct 2006 07:15:56