Newbie Web site help

Todd February 13 2005 9:58 AM EST

Ok, thanks to a few recommendations, I bought a domain and some space from godaddy.com. Now, I am trying to learn html and get a website going.

Yes, I'm a n00b, and no, I am not trying to get this thing entered into any contests :P

Here's my problem:

You'll need to see the website first: http://www.toddandmax.com

I have set the webpage up as a table so I can get a margin on the left hand side with all the pages found in the website. My problem is, that I can't seem to figure out how to have a different background for the margin (1st columm) and the 3rd column (where the family picture is). The 2nd column is a small buffer, which doesn't seem to show up either. I've tried <table background="whatever.gif"> as well as <body background="whatever.gif"> but both seem to change the entire background of the whole table.

Can I have each column a different background? How.

It's easy enough to "show source" to see what I have done, and where I screwed up.

I've looked around in google and a decent web page maker book I have, but have come up empty. Any help you can provide is appreciated. Thanks!

{CB1}Lukeyman February 13 2005 10:28 AM EST

Ok, what you want to do is use CSS.

Remove the Table tags, and instead make it:

<div style="position:absolute; left:0em; top:0em; background:url('theimage.jpg')">
Your menu<br/>
Another menu thing etc
</div>

<div style="position:absolute; left:5em; top:0em;">
Your page stuff
</div>

see if that works out for ya.
I have to type all this in hope of stopping the spell check. I can't use the No Spell Check Tags because if i put the post on HTML Todd won't be able to read the Code I put up there for him. Sorry if this does anything bad.
Spell This Right Please Spell This Right Please Spell This Right Please Spell This Right Please Spell This Right Please Spell This Right Please Spell This Right Please

Todd February 13 2005 10:35 AM EST

Really? So there is no way to do it in html tables? weird. Seems that it should be pretty straight forward :)

Anyone else? are CSS the only way to go?

Bubo [DTC of Bubo] February 13 2005 12:13 PM EST

CSS is the way to go in the long run. Have you take a look at htmlgoodies.com yet?

Stephen February 13 2005 8:59 PM EST

I like the retro, circa-1996 web design! ;)

Vagabond February 15 2005 4:08 PM EST

If you want to stick with tables, you just need to set the background via the TD tag. Something like this:

<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD background="sidebar_bg.gif">
</TD>
<TR>
<TD background="main_bg.gif">
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

PS. You're a Dweeb, Love Valinor.

Vagabond February 15 2005 4:09 PM EST

Oops, there should be a </TR> before the 2nd row starts.