UBB.Developers Forums Community Development Programming HTML, CSS, and JavaScript HTML coding and browser issues: Do you have any input?

Hi everyone!

I've been working with a client ( PhantomRanch.org ) and some designers on a page redesign. As an Internet community manager, coding really isn't my area of expertise. We've run into some coding, load time, and browser issues that I hope you can shed some light on.

The beta page in question is located here:
http://www.phantomranch.org/frameless/frameless.ns.shtml

1. Load Time

This page is designed to be a new home page, replacing a frame-based page found here . The client would like to move away from frames.

The new page utilizes the SlashUBB mod in the middle column, and the Active Topics mod in the right column, both enabled by SSI. The top graphic is quite large, and currently is not broken into multiple elements. The side wood graphics are repeated via the background.

What would you do to speed up the time it takes you load this page?

2. Netscape 4 and background images

Like most sites these days, this site was biased towards Internet Explorer users (especially IE4 and IE5 users). Thus, you would think, "hey, it looks fine in my browser, so we are set." NOT!

Here is a screenshot of how this page looks in IE 5.5: Click here

Enter the dreaded Netscape.

In Netscape 4, the left wood border loads on the right, next to the right border, and forces everything out of whack. Obviously Netscape 4 doesn't like the way those side bars are treated in the background image.

Netscape 4 screen shot: Click here

According to the designers, the reason the side wood elements were placed in the background was due to the fact that parts of this page is dynamic, thus the page will vary in length (otherwise, the border could just be hard coded in for a certain length).

Any suggestions on solving this little problem? Other than ignoring Netscape?

3. Netscape 6 and SlashUBB

Interestingly enough, the side wood background image borders generate fine in Netscape 6, but another problem has occurred. Take a look at the center column...

Netscape 6 screen shot: Click here

When this page was first created and tested (via Netscape 6 actually), the center formatting looked just like it did in IE 5.5. But when a new item was posted in the UBB, and thus brought to this page via the SSI SlashUBB call, the table width on this center column shrunk.

Anyone want to venture a clue on how to fix this?

Thanks again for your time and suggestions. I would appreciate any feedback (negative and positive) you could provide.

- Steve Tanner

Check this out, and it's pretty much self-explanatory why it doesn't look right in NS
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.phantomranch.org%2Fframeless%2Fframeless.ns.shtml&doctype=Inline&ss=

Matt, thanks for the link.

Does anyone else have input?