When is a div not a div?

I have a div seemingly divorced from its background.

I'm refurbishing a web site at www.dja.co.nz. It was reposted last Saturday
on a new server with all my nice fresh css.

It's a three-column layout with a larger centre column. Today, the two outer
columns have, in MSIE only, become wider by about 80 pixels. This has broken
the layout, meaning the right-hand column has insufficient room and is
shunted to the bottom of the centre column. Specifically, the blue
background colour to the left-hand column has become wider, shoving the
central column to the right; the text in the left-hand column is still
constrained by the original 160px column width. This is proved by changing
the width of the left-hand div to 120px; only the text is reformatted; the
blue doesn't move.

It appears to display correctly in MSIE 7. It does display correctly in FF,
Opera, Netscape, K-Meleon and Amaya.

Can anyone suggest why the background should suddenly behave differently
from the div itself? Or point out what I have missed?

Reason tells me this is a result of a change I've made, but I search in vain
for a change remotely connected with those divs. It must be another change
-- but what?

Would anyone care to see the style sheet?

I'd be pathetically grateful for any help.

Thank you.

Richard.

Spartanicus wrote:

The home page still uses the incorrect doctype.

Not on my local copy, which I tested on my local server. I don't bother
posting changes that haven't worked. Do you think that's a good idea? I
guess it prevents people who want to help from having a look, doesn't it?
What do you think?

Are there any other avenues I might explore?

Reducing the code to the bare minimum helps you to see any problems, and
us if then you still need help.

Yes, that's reasonable. What do you mean by the bare minimum? Have I got
unnecessary code somewhere?

But your first port of call should be fixing the numerous validation
errors.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.dja.co.nz/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/v...www.dja.co.nz/

Oh, sorry. Thanks. I'll come back in due course.

Richard.

richard (AT) NOSPAMwordshine (DOT) com (Richard Treadgold) wrote:

Reducing the code to the bare minimum helps you to see any problems, and
us if then you still need help.

Yes, that's reasonable. What do you mean by the bare minimum? Have I got
unnecessary code somewhere?

I'm guessing that 90% of your current HTML and CSS is irrelevant to the
problem.

--
Spartanicus

Deciding to do something for the good of humanity, Richard Treadgold
<richard (AT) NOSPAMwordshine (DOT) com> declared in
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets:

Not on my local copy, which I tested on my local server. I don't bother
posting changes that haven't worked.

That's understandable, but in this sort of situation where you are
asking for help from people who don't have access to your local machine,
it makes it hard for us to check.

Do you think that's a good idea? I
guess it prevents people who want to help from having a look, doesn't it?

Indeed. If you don't want to overwrite the actual file, rename it and
upload as a test page.

Yes, that's reasonable. What do you mean by the bare minimum? Have I got
unnecessary code somewhere?

Unnecessary in that it is irrelevant to the problem. Basically, strip
out anything unrelated, gradually cut it back until a) you find what is
causing the problem or b) you have a bare-bones test page which still
demonstrates the problem.

--
Mark Parnell
My Usenet is improved; yours could be too:
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

Spartanicus wrote:

I'm guessing that 90% of your current HTML and CSS is irrelevant to the
problem.

Yes, I see what you're saying now.

Mark Parnell wrote:

Unnecessary in that it is irrelevant to the problem. Basically, strip
out anything unrelated, gradually cut it back until a) you find what is
causing the problem or b) you have a bare-bones test page which still
demonstrates the problem.

Thanks, Mark. Perhaps I'll ask for help again when the page validates, then
start stripping it back as you suggest if things are still unclear.

Richard Treadgold wrote:

Mark Parnell wrote:


Unnecessary in that it is irrelevant to the problem. Basically, strip
out anything unrelated, gradually cut it back until a) you find what is
causing the problem or b) you have a bare-bones test page which still
demonstrates the problem.


Thanks, Mark. Perhaps I'll ask for help again when the page validates, then
start stripping it back as you suggest if things are still unclear.

You may want to use a util like Tidy, which corrects many if not all of
your html coding glitches.

Sh.

--
Teach children to be polite and courteous in the home, and, when they
grow up,
they won't be able to edge a car onto a freeway.