Looks OK in explorer, explodes in firefox

[dischg]

Hey everyone!

I'm at my wit's end... I've been working on a redesign for my site:

http://www.psychological-warfare.com

and I don't know what else to do. I've done all the CSS and HTML validators, but those can't help me with my problem. The site looks good in Internet Explorer so I thought I was done... until I check my Google Analytics and saw that almost half of my traffic comes from Firefox users (normally I don't care because explorer has the strangle hold).

SO I fired up my Firefox browser and saw what a complete mess it looks like there! I have been adding and removing (and moving) DIV's around. I've been playing with absolute positioning. I've been adjusting widths and playing with all kinds of ideas I've found on this forum.

I just can't get it to work.

Is there a Firefox guru out there that can tell what piece of magical incantation I can conjure to make this work? My only other option is to start smashing computer stuff, but that still won't get me where I need to be.

[Fang]

I've done all the CSS and HTML validators

but not corrected the problems

[dischg]

Yeah, it said there was like a thousand problems, but there weren't any that could cause major meltdowns. I plan on fixing all of the "/>'s" it recommended, but I was hoping to fix this first... Unless...

Do you really think that's all it is?

[kiwibrit]

Correct your xhtml and css errors, as highlighted by the w3c validators, and then come back if you still have a problem.

.....saw that almost half of my traffic comes from Firefox users (normally I don't care because explorer has the strangle hold)......

Maybe it's time you wrote sound web pages rather than producing coding that only IE can live with. Firefox use is now significant.

Mozilla's Firefox picked up some of the market lost by IE 6 and IE 7 rising by 0.8 percentage points to reach 23.3 percent of the Internet users.

[dischg]

I'll be the first to admit I'm a crap designer. The problem with this website is that I took it over from a friend who reverse engineered a template that was probably a decade old and never knew about Firefox.

I fixed a whole bunch of small things, but still haven't gotten to the issue yet. Do you think it's because I have a column and then a box that holds the middle and right columns?

There is a box that holds the top nav that's as wide as the mid and right columns but doesn't (or shouldn't) include to columns. That's gotta be the issue.

I have it all in one big box, that seems to work fine in IE, but Firefox still won't recognize.

[dischg]

So the CSS problems are fixed besides the color issues that don't affect me, but now the Firefox page looks even more like a giant trainwreck. Working through the html validation issues, but none of them are actual design functions.

What am I missing?

[dischg]

OK. One final post before I do more buckling down.

Here's what seems to be my personal issue: I really have no idea what new is involved in XHTML. I'm alright with HTML and I think I took this header off of a diferent website orginally. I'm not sure why...

Can I switch the header to be HTML transitional and everything will be cool?

I realize this is the cheeseball way of doing things and I should build for the future, but not really knowing the difference between XHTML and HTML seems to be my sticky point.

I could do it properly and I could make it solid for the new standard, but I'm going to dump this design probably in the summer anyway.

Any thoughts?

[Fang]

I really have no idea what new is involved in XHTML.

Then you probably don't need it, stick with html

Can I switch the header to be HTML transitional and everything will be cool?

Almost, although there will still be a few errors

I could do it properly and I could make it solid for the new standard

xhtml is not a new standard. Work towards using html 4 strict

[kiwibrit]

The home page looks broken in IE8, too. Firefox is not some strange thing, it is a reasonably standards-compliant browser, as are most other browsers, and IE8 has made some significant moves, too. Code for a standard compliant browser such as Firefox, then check in IE. If need be, bring in a style sheet to correct for IE, or even different versions of IE, with conditional statements.

[dischg]

Hey dudes,

Don't worry about it. Another forum I posted on totally hooked me up. I still have a few other things to finish, but nothing left that's totally outside my skillset.

Cheers!
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"When you hold your genius over others, your gifts are meaningless" ~Einstein