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Table background problem

I have just created a page in DW 2004 and was checking the site reports and found an error with the background attribute as follows:

The background attribute of the TABLE tag is not supported. [Netscape Navigator 7.0]

The code is:

<table width="800" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" background="images/Front_base.gif">

This rather suggests that a background image in a table is not supported in NN7 but ok in everythng else!

Is this the case? If so is there a way to do this without using this attribute?

thanks in advance
mtech

humeniuk

The proper way to do it is to use CSS positioning instead of table-based layouts. This will give you much more flexibility in terms of placing background images (among many other things) AND will make it easier to create a standards-compliant, cross-browser compatible page. Take a look at www.csszengarden.com for some examples.

As an aside, if you use a static width (table or otherwise) of 800px, your design will be too wide for users with 800x600 resolution and they're still the majority, I believe, or close to it. At 800x600 resolution, you really have about 760x420 to work with.

mtech

ASKER

Humeniuk

I seem to have lost my last posting: I am aware of the size issue but a client has insisted it is 800 wide - at least it is only one page and all the others are ok :-(

The page has two tables in it but one has to have this image as a background.

Would the following code work ok:

<table width="800" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image:url('images/myfile.gif')">

It seems to display OK in IE 6 and Dreamweaver does not flag it up as a problem for NN7 but I don't have NN7 to test it on.

Thanks
mtech

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humeniuk

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mtech

ASKER

humeniuk

Thanks for that - the image is the same size as the table so it won't tile, which is good for me. Looks like I need to install NN7 on my work PC - not putting it on mine ;-) just to make sure. Oh well, at least I am getting paid for it.

thanks
mtech

humeniuk

"image is the same size as the table so it won't tile, which is good for me"
I figured, but wanted to mention it just in case.

"at least I am getting paid for it"
I'd install it, too, if someone would pay me. Any takers?

Anyway, thanks for the A. If you run into any problems, post back here.