Who's Really to Blame?

 

Look at this page in Netscape and MSIE.  The colored tables at the bottom of the page will illustrate the problem discussed.

If you look carefully you will notice that these tables display differently in Netscape and MSIE.

table properties
alignment: default
border: 1
cell padding: 4
cell spacing: 0
width: 90%
background color: default
border color: navy blue
light border: aqua
dark border: blue
   

The tables display well in Netscape when you put borders around the cells.

exhibit one.1
exhibit one.1 and one.2 are exactly the same...

right-side color: aqua

  this is table 1A
   
exhibit one.2
this is table 2a | bottom two rows have no text

right-side color: red

   
   

But you'll see here that cells with no other elements won't show their background color in Netscape, nor will consume monitor space like it does in MSIE.  Look at the same two tables with borders turned off...

exhibit two.1

the same table with borders turned off...

in Netscape you won't see the bottom two rows...just a white space (the page background color)
exhibit two.2
in Netscape you don't see the aqua color... or the red of the bottom two cells...

 

Exhibit Three.1

this is what the table looks like

if you're in MSIE you can see the bottom two rows...in Netscape, well, you're screwed!

borders turned on

with a third row inserted in the middle    
    imagine a blue period here

 

Exhibit Three.2

COMPARE THIS

if you're in MSIE you can see the bottom two rows... in Netscape, well, you're screwed!

borders turned off

with a third row inserted in the middle
imagine a blue period here

 

same as previous table

if you're in MSIE you can see the bottom two rows... in Netscape, well, you're screwed!

borders turned on

border color: white | cell padding: 0   the blue period is here now!
     

Go to the next demo page