Ninjakreborn

This is about php, I need to find an answer to this question, I am working with Xhtml/css, I am thinking of a work around for browser incompatibilities, is it a good idea to use PHP, to change the stylesheet based on the browser. Like I can have my default stylesheet for internet explorer, netscape, and firefox, have an alternate one for people that use opera browsers. Is this a good idea, or is it going to keep me from learning css well enough, I want to learn the best of both, I am not fully understanding the good, and bad uses for server side programming I am wondering if the use of php for this specific type of thing is a good idea or not, thanks.

does anyone have any ideas on this opera problem, if I can't find out any other way except to take and use php to detect the browser, and use a different stylesheet for opera, there has to be some other way.

I am confused as to why this is happening, I am starting to hate browser incompatibilities.

I am having a severe problem with opera, I recently started visually testing my websites in the newest versions of internet explorer, firefox, netscape, and opera. With the help of 1 css hack, I found no other way around, I was able to fix all the problems in the first 3 but opera has a huge alignment problem, I was using floating divs, and it has a huge chunk of the content inside the logo. I am yet to find a solution if I find one I will try and help.

[b]Solved, one thing though[/b]For people who are following this for information purposes. Wildteen told me in a pm, that all browsers but opera have default 0, for margin. He said opera does not have them defaulted at 0, so it's best to put padding:0; margin:0; in the body, he told me that in a pm, for people who are trying to do whatever and notice it's not going all the way to the top. Thanks for all the help. I have finally broken through from using Absolute and Relative positioning. I dislike wrapping my websites with #wrapper divs. So I came up with other solutions, I encountered a massive problem, a misalignment issue between internet explorer and firefox, I fixed this *Please note the homepage is still under construction, I am still working with link coloring and some other issues. But what I did was implemented a hack, that removed the margin problem in ie, and it looked good in firefox, but there is a major error in opera. I can't get it to get off the logo, no matter what, that is my problem www.freelancebusinessman.com You can see my css, and Xhtml code there, everything should validate too, I have been playing with them some, but nothing should have thrown off validation. The last issue I am having is with opera, and I would like to get rid of that hack too if I could but I couldn't find any other solutions. [b]EDIT[/b]Also is there any way for me to change around the way I am doing this. I will even redesign the whole thing from scratch, if there is a better way for me to set up this layout, right now as it is, as the content expands the bottom nav bar moves down, as it's supposed to, but I also have incorporated that hack in the css file to fix that, and I am still having the issue severely in opera, the issue comes from margin, on the logo or top of that div, but when I fix it, it severely messes up. The other thing I am trying to figure out, is it possible to create something that looks good in all the browsers I am using being Firefox, internet explorer, netscape, opera- and still have it look good in safari(which I can't see) without using css hacks. Or programming to correct errors, I want to use programming, but not to situate layout I have heard it's bad. I just want to get good at this, I know php, sql, and javascript I will get good at, as I use them, but those are useless to me, unless I am a master of css. I am alread a master almost of Xhtml, but the css, I am still working on and in the past 3 days I have learnt 200 fold from what I previously knew, and I knew a lot then. So I am doing a lot better, getting some of these issues situated will help, I know alot of the stuff I am asking here is subject to opinion, so I am seeking opinions, but anything that can be backed up with proof on accessibility, or standards compliant, would be a push I need to start working in that direction, I want to be 100% hand coded(programming, excetera except when using third party scripts in php), standards compliant, and do as much as possible to keep the code, easy to read, easy to understand, and well commented. If it's possible I would like to do any type of layout, or anything without ever using hacks, and I dug very deep into liquid design I tried my hardest to get liquid design, and I thought I had it until the design was laid out, any advice, or proof, on somethings I can do(if) I redesign my site, to make it 100% liquid I would love it, because when I Finish the homepage completely that's it, I just copy and past the html code, and then redo the content area, and fill it with the new content, I am having the same page layout for every single page, so the homepage is the most critical page on there, sorry for all the writing, but I was hoping to shed some light into the reasoning for me asking these questions, and these number of questions. Thanks for any help, greatly appreciated. MAJOR QUESTION-SHould I follow w3 standards when using selectors or do them my way w3 p#maincontent { } h3#maincontent { } p.maincontent { } h3.maincontent { } Excetera MY personal preference #maincontent p { } #maincontent h3 { } .maincontent p { } .maincontent h3 { } Which way is better, the way w3 shows, or my way, if it's w3, then I will go through and change all of it now, and start mastering that way as well. again sorry for all the questions but I really need this help, I am trying my hardest to advance my career, even if I have to redesign 50 times. THanks.[b][/b]

[b]COMPLETELY SOLVED, all issues relating to this solved.[/b] That was actually a lot of helped and cleared up all my questions. But that leaves me with another, Ok from now on, since I know the cause absolute positioning, is only used for specific cases. Now what about relative, can I use relative instead, or same thing. And you said floats, when I was messing with floats, I got this feeling, and couldn't do anything with the floats. I couldn't get them to do anything, unless, I wrapped my entire page in a div tag, on top of that, there was no way to float bottom, float top. So for instance, which I am going with a center layout with this, even if I wrap my website, in div tags, I can float the navigation on the left of the div, and the body text on the right of the div, making it look alright, but when it's time to put down my bottom nav, THere is no float:bottom;, so I am thinking, at that point, how do I get the bottom navigation list element, (wrapped in divs or not) down to the bottom of the screen. And if this is the case, then I would have no choice but create a div around it, because it is going to be in the center, I just wish float was a little more flexible. Is what I said up there true or am I misunderstanding some of this.

in internet explorer, it is doing something it never has before, in between each link it shows part of the background, if you look at it in firefox or opera it looks fine, but look at it in internet explorer, to tell you the truth when I was using all absolute positioning, and everything was laid out, it didn't do that, but now that I started experimenting, and trying to come up with alternative positioning types, that started happened. I also want to ask 2 more things here while I am at it, in the same posting, without posting 2 more time. 1. What is wrong with all absolute positioning, in what way will it hurt me later, I have used absolute/relative for a long time, and only those 2, I am starting to dig into float, but I don't know if I like what I see other people doing, and wrapping a div around there entire website. When that happens, it doesn't feel right, it feels as though I have a website inside of a website. Can someone explain this to me in some detail. 2. When I look at someone else website they can copy and text, when I try to highlight and copy text on my website, it doesn't act exactly like it does on other people's websites, and that happens with almost every single website I build, I have never encountered that problem in other people's websites. Thanks. [b]EDIT- I wanted to ask something else, is it a good idea, if I try to mix my Xhtml, css and php. Because I know I could run that html, through a couple of php functions and have it looking good again, but, is it good practice to use php when you are just setting the layout of xhtml, css, because if it doesn't hurt anything, then I can start wiring php all throughout my website, everytime I encounter a difficulty. Any help would be appreciated, before I attempt this.[/b]

I have been I have beemn scouring other alternatives. I am trying to change over to other types whatever works. [a href=\"http://www.freelancebusinessman.com\" target=\"_blank\"]http://www.freelancebusinessman.com[/a]

[b]SOlVED problem was completely solved already[/b] I am trying to figure out something, I have a list for navigation, wildteen put down another site for me to look at, I have been using it as a reference. I need to figure out something though, when I style this with css, it makes the list break apart, here is the code. [code] /* Begin main styling */ body { background-color:#7a97a5; color:#000000; margin-top:0; margin-left:50px; } .maintext { position:absolute; top:400px; right:60px; width:500px; border-style:solid; border-color:#666666; } h3 { text-align:center; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } p { text-indent:1em; } /* End main styling */ /* Begin Logo styling */ .logo { border:0; } /* End Logo styling start */ /* Begin styling Main Navigation */ #mainnav ol { margin:0; padding:0; } #mainnav li { list-style:none; display:block; width:190px; background-color:#666666; font-family:Georgia, Arial, Helvetica; font-size:14px; } #mainnav a:link { color:#000000; background-color:#666666; text-decoration:none; } #mainnav a:visited { color:#000000; background-color:#666666; text-decoration:none; } #mainnav a:hover { color:#CCCCCC; background-color:#333333; text-decoration:none; } /* End styling Main Navigation */ /* Begin styling secondary top navigation */ #secondarynav ol { list-style:none; border:1px; border-style:solid; } #secondarynav li { display:inline; border-right:thin; border-right-color:#000000; background-color:#000000; font-family:Georgia, Arial, Helvetica; font-size:14px; } #secondarynav a:link { text-decoration:none; color:#000000; background-color:#666666; } #secondarynav a:visited { text-decoration:none; color:#000000; background-color:#666666; } #secondarynav a:hover { text-decoration:none; color:#CCCCCC; background-color:#333333; } /* End styling secondary top navigation */ [/code] It is the main list navigation that is causing the problems. at www.freelancebusinessman.com I know the rest of it is out of wack, I am not working on the rest of the homepage yet, I am trying to get that list set right before I start, any help, thanks.[b]

i will keep this in mind, but wildteen responded to another post a minute ago, and I was incorporating an overhaul on the css I am repositioning everything, I want to get the homepage perfect before I move foward, I know about firefox, I noticed that and opera at the last minute, I am working on some of the stuff wildteen showed me, that will get every reset position, and clear up all the issues in firefox, and opera

I Decided, instead of ripping your code completely, I will just look at your code, and I will look at what you have set for different elements, and just see some of your margin, positioning, and padding code, and borrow that, and try to style it took look about the same as far as the way it's laid out, I have gotten 40 times better at css since I started this site, and talking with you this time through got me even better, I think I will keep using the . for the 1 items, and the # for the larger sections of elements. Thanks for all the help, thanks for all the advice. What amazes me truly is your age. You are like 16-17 which is 5 years younger than me, you seem to know more about css, xhtml, javascript, php, and sql than anybody I have ever seen, when you are 22, you will be a veritable god at web design. Especially when you can throw together code in 2 minutes just playing around with it, and inadvertently make itlook better than mine which took 2 days, of thinking about planning. I am very amazed and highly surprised, there are so far 3 people I look up to on the forums, you ober, and semi-apocolypse, I think all of those 3 people know quite a bit, and if not for those three learning what I know now would have taken 4 times longer.

Yes one more idea I don't remember how to access it but if you are talking about on your computer, I have that problem too, there is a way to set your computers default usage for each type of file, not sure how to do that exactly anymore though/

ok, since I like your layout a lot better, can i use that layout there, and just change around the coloring, and rework, the names of the id's and classes, back the way I had them, and use that general layout, I look at your copy and my copy, mine isn't laid out as well, and has severe issues in firefox and opera, but yours looks perfect in all of them, is this ok with you.

That sparks my attention, which are better classes or id's. And do you think the old design looks better, or the stylesheet you showed me, if you think that one is better, I should use that as a design, if it's a lot better than the other one. Hmm, that also removed all the browser incompatibilities. I think I will try my old design, and do what you said, and use some floats, and remove the absolute positioning. I am still wondering about the class and id, I wanted to use both worlds, so I thought classes on single elements, for instance if I had just a logo, it's just one element. But then I was using multiple sets of elements with the other, with #, because I was thinking it worked better, any help might give me a better understanding of css. thanks so far for all the help.

Just go into the properties of dreamweaver, and set all the files. It has a list of files you can set it to open different files with different applications. Just checkt hat

I know a lot about css now, I have been doing it for a long time, I also know quite a bit about browser compatibility, I have designed sites, fixed problems between browsers, but this time, I built a site, It looks alright in internet explorer, but when it comes down to firefox, and opera it looks funny. [a href=\"http://www.freelancebusinessman.com\" target=\"_blank\"]http://www.freelancebusinessman.com[/a] [code] /* Begin main styling */ body { background-color:#7a97a5; color:#000000; } .maintext { position:absolute; left:202px; top:250px; width:550px; border:thin; border-style:solid; border-color:#666666; } h3 { text-align:center; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } p { text-indent:1em; } /* End main styling */ /* Begin Logo styling */ .logo { border:0; position:absolute; top:0px; left:0px; } /* End Logo styling start */ /* Begin styling Main Navigation */ #mainnav { position:absolute; top:250px; left:-40px; list-style:none; } #mainnav li { display:block; width:190px; border:1px; border-color:#666666; border-style:solid; background-color:#666666; padding-left:10px; font-family:Georgia, Arial, Helvetica; font-size:14px; } #mainnav a:link { color:#000000; background-color:#666666; text-decoration:none; } #mainnav a:visited { color:#000000; background-color:#666666; text-decoration:none; } #mainnav a:hover { color:#CCCCCC; background-color:#333333; text-decoration:none; } /* End styling Main Navigation */ /* Begin styling secondary top navigation */ #secondarynav ol { list-style:none; border:1px; border-style:solid; } #secondarynav li { display:inline; border-right:thin; border-right-color:#000000; background-color:#000000; font-family:Georgia, Arial, Helvetica; font-size:14px; } #secondarynav a:link { text-decoration:none; color:#000000; background-color:#666666; } #secondarynav a:visited { text-decoration:none; color:#000000; background-color:#666666; } #secondarynav a:hover { text-decoration:none; color:#CCCCCC; background-color:#333333; } /* End styling secondary top navigation */ [/code] Xhtml below here [code] <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="freelancebusinessman.css" /> <title>Welcome to Freelance Businessman, the one stop source for web design/coding/programming</title> </head> <body> <!-- Logo begins here --> <a href="index.php"> <img src="images/banner.jpg" alt="Freelance Businessman logo" class="logo" width="900" height="250" /></a> <!-- Logo ends here --> <!-- Main left hand navigation starts here --> <div id="mainnav"> <ol> <li>Site Index</li> <li><a href="aboutme.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the About Me page">About Me</a></li> <li><a href="webdesignethics.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Web Design Ethics page">Web Design Ethics</a></li> <li><a href="webcodingethics.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Web Coding Ethics page">Web Coding Ethics</a></li> <li><a href="webprogrammingethics.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Web Programming Ethics page">Web Programming Ethics</a></li> <li><a href="otherwebsiterelatedethics.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Other Website Related Ethics">Other Web site Related Ethics</a></li> <li><a href="skillsandservices.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Skills and Services page">Skills and Services</a></li> <li><a href="portfolio.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Portfolio page">Portfolio</a></li> <li><a href="extrainformation.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Extra Information page">Extra Information</a></li> <li><a href="advancedforms.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Advanced Forms page">Advanced Forms</a></li> <li><a href="specialfeatures.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Special Features page">Special Features</a></li> <li><a href="freeresourcesandlinks.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Free Resources and Links">Free Resources and Links</a></li> <li><a href="recentupdates.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Recent Updates page">Recent Updates</a></li> </ol> </div> <!-- Main left hand navigation ends here --> <div id="secondarynav" style="position:absolute;, left:162px; top:830px;"> <ol> <li><a href="privacypolicy.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Privacy Policy page">Privacy Policy</a></li> <li><a href="copyrightnotice.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Copyright Notice page">Copyright Notice</a></li> <li><a href="basiccontactpage.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Basic Contact page">Basic Contact Page</a></li> <li><a href="basiclinkexchange.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Basic Link Exchange page">Basic Link Exchange</a></li> <li><a href="creditinginformation.php" title="Clicking this will take you to the Crediting Information page">Crediting Information</a></li> </ol> </div> <div class="maintext"> <h3>Welcome to Freelance Businessman</h3> <p>I want to thank everyone for visiting.  There are a lot of reasons why this site could help you.   This site isn't just intended for one person, but for many.  It was generally created for the purpose of my business.  There are however been some additions during construction that accommodate a large number of people.  So not only will people seeking a freelance designer, coder, programmer find what they need, but other people will find something here for themselves also.</p> <p>For people that are coming here, with the possibility of being clients, then you will find everything here about me and my business.  The ethics pages, detail my thoughts, opinions, ethics, and morals when it comes to the listed areas.  My Services, Skills, and portfolio explain information about my abilities, what services I offer, and previous projects I have worked on.  If you are visiting my site because you have a project that You need completely, you will find it easier contacting me through the advanced forms page.  There you can get quick quotes, and submit job information much quicker.  The basic contact page should only be used for small issues.  Even site errors can be reported through one of the advanced form pages.</p> <p>If you are not a potential client, there might be something for you here as well.  I have an extensive list of resources and links which are updated on a very regular basis.  Also the links listed, are not random worthless links, all of them are links that are actually helpful, and a brief explanation of why they can be helpful are listed for each one.  There are also tutorials available on the site, and again not just any tutorials.  I am familiar with how people generally learn, it sometimes take a better explanation than what you see online, so I intend to make the tutorials friendly to everyone, beginner and advanced web designers, coders, programmers alike.  I will have tutorials on everything related to web sites, and will be accepting approved submissions.</p> <p>So again thank you for visiting Freelance Businessman, and have a look around.</p> </div> </body> </html> [/code] The other thing I thought of was using javascript or php to detect the type of browser and switch the stylesheet accordingly, but I don't see hte point in having to go to all that trouble every time I build a website, other people don't unless it's there specific style, and I use a combination of 95% external style sheet and 5 percent inline when I have to just position one element seperately for each page, any ideas with what could be the problem.

it's just in general. I position it either absolute or relative, no matter what, it doesn't stay at the bottom, I decided to stick with the hard way, I just use the external style sheet like I always do, but the position of that one element I clear up in every page with an inline style. I have been fighting with it, trying floats, and positioning it to the bottom, I was thinking maybe php, or javascript could set it's position based on the length of the page, but that turned up nothing as well.

I have done a lot with the home page, I nuked the site completely and redid the whole thing from the ground up. The site is not completely, I always get the homepage in place, completely, then the rest of the site falls into place quickly. I would appreciate any advice, critisicm, alignment issues, postioning problems, and overall any ideas as to make the homepage more accessible, and more user friendly, any ideas. The rest of the site I am going to start building right after I get feedback, thanks. [a href=\"http://www.freelancebusinessman.com\" target=\"_blank\"]http://www.freelancebusinessman.com[/a]

I have been trying to figure this out any ideas. I have tried for awhile is there a way with css, I see a lot of people with navigation bars at the bottom, or different things at the bottom, how do I use css, to get it to conform to whatever else is one the page, some pages are longer than others, I was hoping there was a way, it would autoset based on how tall the text on the page is, because it is a pain having to reposition it for every single page.

Thanks, I appreciate it, I will keep some of this in mind, when I start again today getting ready to start more on the site, I didn't like using php to create images, it didn't work out, so I am going to look around for a good photo to match what I want

perfect idea, I can use webcam to take a still image of something then fix it up in photoshop, the template idea, I like, but I am worried with that be a bad name for me, for instance, is it bad design to use another template and change it, or is that the way a lot of designers start things off, if so then I like the idea, and I am going to run with it

I will keep that in mind during the redesign

That's what is severely confusing me, and making me consider changing businesses. IT's not that I thought it was good, but it's some things. For instance I look at some of these sites on here, and I like the way they look, under website critique, and then all of a sudden like 10 people put down a bunch of stuff that is horrible on the site, then when I look at a site they say is bad, it looks good to me, is it just my taste in sites, or is it something else. What defines a site as good, and bad, I ahve a few things I notice that annoy me on sites, and I can comment on them, but for instance, my site, if I was to give it hard criticism from an external perspective, I would say something like the font is original, and the color scheme needs to be changed, the logo needs to be sharpened, and maybe not stretched as much, what defines "good" and "bad" and "horrible. This is what is confusing me, Ithink of what I cna do that won't classify as horrible but doesn't that severely limit what I cna do with a website, for it to be good. I am more of confused here now, lokoing for guidance and direction, I have poured over hundreds of websites in the past weeks, doing test criticisms on them and compariing them to other peoples criticism, I end up at the point where I like what other people dislike, Ihave had some people say that to me, the logo is blurry, sharpen it, redo the link coloring scheme. What else about it is bad, I seriously need some direction in this, advice in discerning what's good, and what's bad.

That's not possible, just set a textarea instead.

to tell you the truth I think it kicks ass. I think that you should try and find away to completely remove the horizontal scroll, there is a scrollbar a little at the bottom, in internet explorer, don't have time to check it in the others right now, but hopefully you can get rid of that, or disable it with javascript, if it can be disabled. The site I am working on is going to ahve some of the same elements as this one, and I appreciate someone out there who cares about web design. What your site is doing is trying to help it easier for developers, programmers, coders, out there trying to make a living, and trying to increase there career. I like the general idea, and what I like most is the fact of the color scheme, the color scheme matched with the logo is memorable, I think you should elave the color scheme alone completely no matter what, I don't think you could find a better match. And by the way, how do I get that PHP Powered logo on there, I saw it took me to php.net, where do I get that banner at.