Hello!
First I would like to say that the page I am asking for help on does not have a dtd. I didn't know which one applied, and most of them messed up my page and made me really scared!
Also, I did search, however, I felt personalized help pertaining to MY code would help me the most.
That said:
I coded my first web page of my life...ever...and it was a disaster.
Realatively, it looks just how I want it to in Apple Safari (save for some page size nonesene), but looks horrible in IE. I've just barely gotten my way around making an external stylesheet work so I don't even know where to begin correcting problems I've encountered.
Anyway, could anyone possible take a moment to browse my page and code, assisting my in how I could better write the code, how I could approach some of the issues created, etc?
Thanks a lot!
Site is: http://www.nineninefour.com/vegasitems
Stylesheet is: http://www.nineninefour.com/stylesheets/identity.css
What the page looks like in safari: http://www.nineninefour.com/example.png
Re: A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
First I would like to say that the page I am asking for help on does not have a dtd.
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
Use this as your basic page and then please seriously read the links, it's all pretty straight forward if you start with the basics and gradually learn.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> <head> <title></title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> <link href="" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <p>Everything goes here</p> </body> </html>
Learn XHTML = http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp
Learn CSS = http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp
Validate XHTML = http://validator.w3.org/
Validate CSS = http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
[EDIT] What's going on there, the code in the tags disappeared?
[EDIT] There we go.
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
[EDIT] What's going on there, the code in the tags disappeared?
http://www.csscreator.com/css-forum/ftopic19385.html
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
Hi, just to add to your confusion, you have the following for example.
h1 { width:27.52cm; height:2.58cm; position:absolute; background: url("http://www.nineninefour.com/glass.png") 0 0 no-repeat; margin: 3px 0px 0px 5px; }
Use px, % or em for width & height not cm.
position:absolute;very bad generally if you don't really know what you are doing, avoid like the plague.
More reading for you on this point by Tyssen
http://www.csscreator.com/css-forum/ftopic13756.html
If you can get through all of the tips so far and have a new working example then get back to us for more pointers.

Re: A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
*edit by Triumph - You WILL watch your tone at this forum.
Re: A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
First I would like to say that the page I am asking for help on does not have a dtd. I didn't know which one applied, and most of them messed up my page and made me really scared!
Unfortunately for you, forum rules require you to have a proper DTD on your page before asking for help for it. If you were 'scared' of them, then maybe you should've posted a question asking for advice on which one to choose.
And FWIW, going off at a forum regular, no matter the tenor of his/her post, isn't going to win you many brownie points. You're new around here so you've gotta kinda earn your dues; it's not just this forum, that's how they all operate. It may not seem fair but that's the way it is - if you come across as likely to snap at every turn, people are less likely to help you.
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
You need to adjust your common sense, because I did do that. If you go ahead and validate my pages, you'll see the only problem present, CSS or XHTML, is the absense of a dtd.
As Ty pointed out, the forum rules (which we've spent hours creating, and NOBODY seems to bother to read) state explicitly that before we help you, you MUST have a doctype and you MUST have valid code.
You're also missing a character set.
Your code itself makes no semantic sense:
<div class="container"> </div> <div class="container2"> </div> <div class="containerfinish"> </div> <h1></h1> <div class="outline"> </div>
Where is all the content? I just see some empty elements.
What happens if you turn styles off? Do you just get a blank page? Yes.
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
I apologise for our tone, let's get this back on topic shall we Thankyou for bothering to read the forum rules, it does mean a lot to me.
I missed the part in the original post about the DTD, there's a huge post by Hugo here:
http://www.csscreator.com/css-forum/ftopic11242.html
explaining doctypes, but it's very long winded. There's also a great article at www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype.
As I said before, the site has no content. Just empty containers.
Lose the absolue positioning for now, don't worry about the CSS. Get some content in there, then we can help you get styling
Re: A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
eventually leading to the topic being locked and my quesitons going unanswered.
No 'eventually' about it. If someone else disagrees with me they can reverse the decision by I think the disrespect and outright rudeness shown by this poster warrants immediate locking of this thread.
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
I apologise for our tone
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
Just to lighten the mood
there's a huge post by Hugo here:
http://www.csscreator.com/css-forum/ftopic11242.html
explaining doctypes, but it's very long winded.
So I'm just full of wind , I is crushed and destroyed

Locking out of posts is a last resort and not one we are keen on taking unless the poster is not willing to deal politely and calmly with regular members Nineninefour I think that this thread has run it's course but if you still wish to resolve problems with this page and have included a DTD or need help with that then feel free to post a fresh thread and we'll start over.
Hugo.
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
Triumph, there's no need to edit out comments, that's taking this forum too much into the realm of censorship, where people are only allowed to say good things about us. Yes, people will get sarky and snappy, but only because they feel that Gurus or mods treat every case the same and paint everyone with the same brush as it were.
I'm aware the PM message is supposed to be private, but look what I received from nnf:
Hey, I just wanted to thank you for being somewhat of a guiding light amidst the absolute fiasco my thread became.
I cant help but feel so silly, as far as how little I know and my attempt to code it up, however, your links and advice were more than neccessary. I'm going to redesign, attempt to code right, and post it back again (in another thread, what's his face obviously flexed on me ).
Anyway, wanted to thank you for your help and patience!
-nine
By using your censoring attitude and misundertanding the initial post/replies, you got a snappy sarcastic comeback.
By me apologising and actually offering help, I got a great big thankyou for it and it brightened up my day.
The phrase "catch more flies with honey than vinegar" rings true here
A beginner: Stabbing in the dark!!
Sorry but I have to disagree. If such abuse towards my fellow gurus is kept around it gives it merit. Disagreement is one thing but calling people stupid or retarded is way over my limit. I'll not stand for it.
I understand that he was frustrated but he handled it the wrong way. I handled it the right way. Call it censorship if you like, I call it protecting a forum that I really like being a part of.
The phrase "catch more flies with honey than vinegar" rings true here Very Happy
I will offer my help to this person in the future but I will not stand by and watch anyone turn this place into a circus.
Just my tuppence.