divs, arrangements and Firefox!

[Halcrow]

I'm new to web site developement and am trying to set up my first site. The content area has three vertical sections:
a left hand menu
the content area
a right hand menu

I am trying to avoid using tables for page layout, so instead I've plaved each of these three things in div tags. Now, in order to place them in the correct positions on my page, I've been forced to position each of them absolutely, defining each of their left margins to place them next to each other. This works but seems a bit suspect and quite often all goes wrong when I change something in my CSS. Is there a better, standards complient way of going about this?

Also, I've uploaded my site (the start of it anyway) to:

http://www.table-tennis.shetland.co.uk

(can you guess that I come from Shetland and play table-tennis???)

Now, if you have time, please open it with Firefox, and notice that the absolute positioning goes completely wrong - but then press refresh...(the only thing I could say was: eh?)

Anyway, please have a look and post some suggestions regarding better ways to code/arrange my site.

thankyou
Calum

 

[Halcrow]

oh yeah - I haven't finished the layout or anything so the menus aren't alligned correctly. I'm referring more the the method I've used to code.

any suggestions, comments or improvements about my code are welcome - I want to learn!!!

Calum

 

[ChrisHirst]

you need to add units to ALL the values, IE will assume px other browsers aren't so forgiving. You are better off using relative positioning and float to position elements.

absolute takes the element out of the document flow and therefore removes it from the interaction between other elements.



Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?

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So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Halcrow]

thanks for the tips. I'll try my best to avoid absolute positioning from now on

Cheers
Calum