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forum grows and squishes columns

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URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=9486
Printed Date: 07 April 2026 at 10:09pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: forum grows and squishes columns
Posted By: burner33
Subject: forum grows and squishes columns
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 1:53am

Greetings,

I read this forum back and forth and figured out how to put extra coluns in, placing the forum in the middle of the page.  Works fine on main forum page, but when I click on a forum category to go into the topics, the forum grows and the columns on either side get narrow.

Here's what I placed in the header.asp...

<script language="javascript" src="includes/default_javascript.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<!--#include file="skin_file.asp" -->
</head>
<body leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" bgcolor="<% = strBgColour %>" text="<% = strTextColour %>" background="<% = strBgImage %>">
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<td colspan="3">Header contents here</td>
<tr>
<td width="15%">Menu in this Cell</td><td width="70%">

 

And here's what I have in footer.asp...

<!-- footer -->
</td><td width="15%">Right content in this Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>
</html>

Am I doing something wrong here, or do I need to set the column widths somewhere else as well?

Thanks for any help you can offer.




Replies:
Posted By: tarantula
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 4:54am
In skin_file.asp you have to change this const: Const strTableVariableWidth = "xxx" where xxx can be % or pixels.

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Don't piss me off - I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.


Posted By: burner33
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 2:07pm

Tried that, it changes the size of the table (forum) within the cell but does not affect the cells on either side or the cell in which the forum is located.

I'm sure this is simple, but it really has me stumped, any help is appreciated.



Posted By: burner33
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 4:35pm
I want the forum to occupy 70% of the screen, a left column occupy 15% and a right column occupy 15%... I've got the columns, but when you click  on a category to go to the topi view the forum expands to about 80% and the side columns shrink down to about 10.


Posted By: dpyers
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 6:29pm
How do you tell the difference between 10% and 15%?

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Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me.


Posted By: burner33
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 7:22pm

"how do you tell the difference?"

Simple, at 15% a given text fits on the same line, at 10% it wraps to next line.

I don't know that it's shrinking to exactly 10, maybe 8, maybe 9 but it's definitely smaller because text that fits at 15 wraps to second line when you go into topics screen.



Posted By: thekiwi
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 7:32pm

Originally posted by burner33 burner33 wrote:

I want the forum to occupy 70% of the screen, a left column occupy 15% and a right column occupy 15%... I've got the columns, but when you click  on a category to go to the topi view the forum expands to about 80% and the side columns shrink down to about 10.

Your middle column content is forcing the others to contract.

You need to place a 1pixel x 1pixel image in your left and right columns and stretch it (via HTML width) to your gauranteed mimimum .. eg 50px.  This will stop them from totally collapsing

PS.  If you are a purest, W3 states that HTML shouldn't be used for Layout   , ie no tables ... but use StyleSheets.  It can be done ... but is hard first time around.

For example my DEV site (excluding the forum) is predominantly table free for layout ... only using tables for tabular data ... eg shop items



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Cheers
TheKiwi
http://www.infobahn.co.nz - Internet Infobahn - website design and hosting


Posted By: burner33
Date Posted: 03 February 2004 at 8:01pm

Thanks, that's exactly what I needed.  I thought about it before but wasn't sure.  It makes sense, the pics on either side will force the side columns' size and keep the center table/cell from bullying it's way wider.

As for HTML and CSS, I'm just barely coming off of FrontPage so I'm dangerous enough lurking around in raw html and making minor changes to asp, my brain will explode if I try to learn how to do anything else.

Thanks again.




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