Browser Issues with Tables

[webbgirl]

I was looking for some information on known table browser issues, does anyone know where or if a list exists?

[Technosailor]

Well CSS doesn't work real well on tables in Netscape 4.7.

Sketch

[sambone]

hmm! does anything work in netscape 4.x?

I know netscape 4 is a little funny with cell bg images and i 'm sure height doesnt work.

I would suggest that you avoid using tables unless you really need to. Also avoid complex tables, most sites you see have a really complex table structure (image slicing) and most of the time you can do the same using very simple tables.

I am pretty sure i have seen a list of these bugs, but i dont remember where. The best way around them is just to not use tables.

[Andrew-J2000]

option 2 dont use netscape 4
option 3 dont use netscape @ all

[Marc]

I don't think this can be considered a "known issue" but a big problem I used to have, and you might be having with netscape, is leaving empty cells...

If you specify a cell to a certain width and bgcolor, it works fine in IE but not at all in NS and sometimes figuring out why is difficult. My advice is to make a 1x1 transparent pixel and drop that in all your empty cells... it usually fixes things up with netscape.

[AljapaCo]

Please, don´t use all them pixel gifs!!

It as easy as writing & nbsp; in the empty cell to "fill" it!
sorry for the space between & and nbsp; it´s supposed to be as one but then you will only see a space between theother two words

Now why shouldn´t you use pixel gifs??
Well, for starters, one gif isn´t much, but a million pixel gifs are plenty! And then I do tend to mind the users that are visually lacking!

Just a small note...

[Marc]

Originally posted by AljapaCo
Well, for starters, one gif isn´t much, but a million pixel gifs are plenty!

Well, if you make one transparent pixel, and use it for all your needs, it only gets downloaded once, and is about a third of one kb.

Originally posted by AljapaCo
And then I do tend to mind the users that are visually lacking!

That's true, but what are you going to do, just eliminate all images on your page in consideration of the extremely small percentage of users that don't have images..? If they are browsing with images turned off, they are used to it, and expect to see the X's or whatever.

The other reason I like to use it, is because I find that in netscape a lot of times if I give a table cell a certain width, it actually gets no width, unless I put in one of these blank pixels and explicity declare its height and width (which, of course, does NOT increase the download time) the cell does not properly display.

Indeed & nbsp; will "fill" and empty cell, but so will <br> and they both give it a height (well, I know <br> does anyway), so if you are specifying a cell with a small height, perhaps a thing white line or some kind of spacer it creates that problem as well.

[creole]

Originally posted by AljapaCo
It as easy as writing & nbsp; in the empty cell to "fill" it!

Yes, but in some cases, the non-breaking space takes up too much room vertically for use in tight fitting conditions. For example, if you need a 2 pixel tall line only a GIF will allow you to "fill" that space and ensure the line stays at 2 pixels tall.

[vgarcia]

Originally posted by AljapaCo
Please, don´t use all them pixel gifs!!

It as easy as writing & nbsp; in the empty cell to "fill" it!
sorry for the space between & and nbsp; it´s supposed to be as one but then you will only see a space between theother two words

Well can you think of another way to implement the gray lines seen in the borders here? using the non-breaking space character would leave me with a gray line about 13 pixels wide or tall, but I only need it to be one pixel. The "pixel.gif" used in here is ONLY there because Netscape 6.1 and below wouldn't render the border lines unless they were. IE did a fine job with it, and NS6.2, but previous NS versions can't handle it.

If you have a better way let me know, I could always use the suggestions. But for now that's the way I have to do it.

[creole]

Nested tables with cellpadding set to 1 on the outer table.

[Skunk]

Originally posted by vgarcia


Well can you think of another way to implement the gray lines seen in the borders here?

Here's a handy trick for getting single pixel wide borders. This code will give you a white table with red 1 pixel wide borders

<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="red">

Then for the table cells:

<td bgcolor="white">Cell contents</td>

By making the table background red you get a big red block - but because your table cell background colour is white the cells within the table will be white. The end result is that the red only shows through for the gaps between the cells, and since the table cellspacing is 1 this will result in 1 pixel wide borders.