DW 8 CSS Tutorial results not as expected

Greetings,

Am working through the DW8 CSS tutorial, creating index_css.html with
multiple layers positioned vertically on the page. I entered some text
and graphics within some of the layers, and previewing it in IE has all
the elements/layers jumbled up in the upper left corner..

So I'm missing something obvious, any clues to make the layers "keep"
their positions as created in the design view?? I have the same
problem when the page is opened from IE (not in preview). Obviously
missing something fundamental, but it's eluding me...

TIA

One more thing.. by following the tutorial, all layers do have a
position tag, and they are all absolute position, and it still displays
wrong.