# HTML tables in Chrome and IE



## david94401 (Nov 30, 2010)

I've recently put together a website for my company, using tables to nest graphics and text content. My problem has to do with the different ways Chrome and IE are interpreting these tables.

Let's look at this page for illustration: http://www.lantaugroup.hk/partners.htm

If I look at the page in Chrome (or Firefox, I believe), then the width of the middle column extends such that the text comfortably fits underneath the banner. This is what I was intending to happen.

In IE, however, the content is all squashed into what appears to be a narrow central column. I can't figure out a way to fix this. *(Help!)*

Looking at the code, there are four columns of different sizes. The first contains the navigation tabs, the second a blank filler column, the third the content of the page, and the final column is another blank filler (used on some other pages to hold content).

I'd appreciate any insightful HTML advice.

Thank you very much in advance!

David


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## ehymel (Aug 12, 2007)

David,

A few comments:
1. Your best bet would be to switch to css for page layout instead of all of these nested tables. Very difficult to read your code, and css is much better for layout anyway.
2. The tag seems unnecessary. Any reason to be using it? Implementation from one browser to the next will be variable.
3. The width=100% is likely your culprit for the problems you are seeing. Again, css would be much better for layout than all of these crazy nested tables.

Good luck.


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## lordsmurf (Apr 23, 2009)

The site looks good, which is nice. Most of what I see here is terrible, so it's refreshing to see clean and attractive designs from time to time. Good job!

This site is minimalist enough that it could rather easily be migrated to CSS, possibly even into WordPress.

IE renders differently than Firefox, Safari and Chrome.


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## david94401 (Nov 30, 2010)

@ehymel: thanks for the tip on the 100%. i got the tables to display right in IE by playing around with pixel widths.

@lordsmurf: thanks for the compliment on the website.

Putting the tables into CSS sounds like an interesting proposition, but is currently above what I would be able to do. I've used CSS in a limited sense to create text styles, but that's about as far as I can go. Do you have any pointers/recommendations on places I might read up on how to do this?

Thanks.


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## ehymel (Aug 12, 2007)

Might be worthwhile to check out css creator (http://csscreator.com), mostly just to learn how to get started based on what that site can generate for you. There are lots of css layout tutorials available through google.

On the other hand, I agree with lordsmurf that the page looks great. If there's no more editing to do on the page then no need to mess with success!


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## lordsmurf (Apr 23, 2009)

I have yet to find a way to teach CSS effectively online. 
It's one of the few things I absolutely have to do in person, to be effective.


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