Newbie Layers Question

They have: 4 posts

Joined: Dec 2004

Hello All,

Although I have been doing simple HTML ads for eBay for years, I am new to web design and am working on my first real web site for my local church. I have just started on the homepage. My question is about so called layering.

The sidebar & drop cap are both layers described with CSS. The body text is described as a class selector with a wide left margin. What I'd like to know is whether I can somehow bring the body text to the front without making it a layer? As it is, the text is getting cut off by the drop cap image especially in Netscape.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Jim

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

I'm going to bump this over to Web Page Authoring to see if you can get an answer there. Sorry we haven't been able to get back to you sooner!

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Part of the problem here is that you're mixing layers with tables for layout (and flash for navigation ?!?!). As a newbie, it would probably be easiest for you to do everything wtih tables. Layers can be tricky, especially when considering different screen resolutions and older browsers.

Another possible way to fix this would be to make sure your horizontal navbar fits across the screen at all resolutions. Then you might not have the problem with some items bumping down to another line and causing the overlap.

What version of Netscape are you testing? Using any kind of CSS can be a problem in v. 4, but most so few people use that browser anymore it's usually not worth worrying about.

They have: 4 posts

Joined: Dec 2004

Thank you for the reply Megan. It's a moot point anyway as the client wants to lose the drop cap and welcome message. I'm also planning to lose the flash navigation in exchange for an expanding javascript menu.

I had originally wanted to place the contact and site map links on the bottom, but that got nixed too, making the top nav bar too big.

Is it preferable to convert the layers to tables? I am very excited about the potential of layers but I want visitors to be able to actually see what I've done and if they aren't supported except in the latest browser versions perhaps I need to wait on that. I have only the new version of Netscape.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

They are supported in all the commonly used browsers now it's just that they are a little difficult to implement. You may have a different expereince with Dreamweaver but I find that their interface isn't the best for using layers. If you know how to do it by hand it can be extremely powerful and in fact a better way of doing things. However, this method isn't without it's own set of problems and it does take some expereince to figure out what those are.

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