[FONT=Verdana]I usually have to go to a bookstore and browse through several books in search of one that presents the material that I’m seeking and does so in such a way that is meaningful to me.
Yes, copying and pasting code without understanding it isn’t very educational; especially if the copied code doesn’t cause obvious problems.
I would have probably put those two columns of data on www.c5d.co.uk/1841.php in an HTML table instead of a list. The list code is invalid, anyway.
is a fine tool for keeping words together that should not wrap separately. You understand that. Anything can be overused or misused. Most of the time, when someone uses a string of s, they are trying to create a line of space… not a line of unbreakable space… just space. So why not put a space between pairs of ? Takes less typing, looks less ugly, wraps at end of lines. Go figure. (not advocating, just musing.)
In your menu bar, the s aren’t needed, they serve no purpose, period.
I’m curious to know something, please. On that page, http://www.c5d.co.uk/1861-70.php, how did so many short lines of <td> text end up taking two lines before the closing </td>? I can’t imagine how or why that happend. Do HTML editors to that on purpose?
That’s a huge amount of data. How did you ever do it? Incredible determination and patience you have.[/FONT]
I didn’t think there were any  ,s on the menu bar.
Have I missed some ?
I can’t answer your question about the tables, I’m afraid. I type them all out in Exvel and convert them to HTMl via the save as web page option.
If you think there’ a hugh amount of data, then you should look at the census pages too. 1841-1911 for my locality. Not yet complete but more than half way there.
As for the two columns, everyone tells me tables are a no go unless it’s tabular like the baptism entries.
Is it possible that you are calling a different c5dmenu.php file than you intend? The menu that I see if full of " "s and does not contain the flyout menu in the first drop-down item.
Ahhh, data exported from Excel as a web page. That explains it. Thanks.
“Everyone”? That’s funny. I see a small, two column matrix. It could have come from an Excel spreadsheet. It can be coded quite efficiently with an HTML table. Positioning list items is certainly doable, but not as efficient. However, the present list code is just plain broken no matter whose camp you follow.
NOTHING about your page is as “broken” as the links. Your page has been designed to look like a printed page. The trouble with that is that printed pages do not contain hyperlinks. At this time, a user is obligated to mouse over everything on your page, images and print, in an effort to discover whether or not any links exist on the page. THERE ARE NO CLUES. Your design does not consider the classic web page user who expects links to look distinct. THAT is a BAD thing. Your site has hundreds of pages, some of which contain a huge amount of information. As a user, I would be frustrated after viewing the first two or three pages because of the difficulty of identifying links.
Since inception, HTML has had default link behaviors built in… no css modifications necessary. Those default behaviors include colors and underline. Those are behaviors that people have been trained to expect from web pages since HTML was introduced. CSS gives us the power to alter the user experience. Unfortunately for users, some of today’s designs depart from those anchor expectations a bit too far and are difficult to navigate. Your site is “difficult to navigate” because the links are hidden within the text. Underlines on non-link text further obscure the links. That’s just how it is. The “look” that you like is not the “look and feel” that works best for the users.
Antony, in the previous example, other than deleting the classes assigned to the list items, the list code is intact. That was the purpose of that example. Same HTML, different (simpler) css, improved behavior. With one little exception… the clickable area of the anchors extends outside of the text to the full width of the “column”. Not necessarily undesirable, but not what you started with.
This example adds a div container around each anchor so they all will behave exactly as your original design.
.center { /* center-align any paragraph */
text-align:center;
}
.census1841 { /* ul - list of districts for 1841 - replaces ED, ED1q, ED3 */
list-style-type:none;
display:table;
padding:0;
margin:0 auto;
}
.census1841 li {
display:table-row;
text-align:left;
padding:0;
margin:0;
}
.census1841 p {
display:table-cell;
text-align:left;
padding:3px 50px 3px 0; /* padding-right visually separates "columns" */
}
.census1841 div {
display:table-cell;
}
.dlinks { /* replaces .kellys and .kellys2 - the last paragraph with the directory links */
text-align:center;
}
.dlinks a {
display:inline-block;
margin-left:20px;
}
Which bit of the CSS centres the lines. I have tried looking at all of the CSS you provided and trying various combinations but the pargraphs stubbornly stick to the left
Follow this very carefully because it is really tricky.
First, delete all 3 of the new things on the css sheet that pertain to census1811.
Second, make the following change:
[COLOR="#0000FF"].census1811, /* add this line exactly, including the comma */[/COLOR]
.census1841 { /* ul - list of districts for 1841 - replaces ED, ED1q, ED3 */
list-style-type:none;
display:table;
padding:0;
margin:0 auto;
}
I thought that by specifying it seperately it would do the same thing, which I had done, but by doing what you suggest it doesn’t quite do what I want it to do because the line spacing is different.
However now that I know which one centres the paragraph, this is what I have done and it works fine
.census1811 { /*centres the para & specifies the line space */
list-style-type:none;
display:table;
padding:0;
margin:0 auto;line-height:25px;
}
Just when I thought it was fine, I have come across a browser incompatability problem.
If you look at the drop down menus in IE and firefox, then some of the appear to be cut off at the bottom. Can you give me a clue how to resolve this ?