Backgrounds in cells

Question: Are image backgrounds in table cells possible in more than once place? I have tried placing the above ‘background=’ line in the <TABLE>…<TR>…<TD>…and have found that for the image to be visible in IE, it can only be in the TABLE line and not the others. NSCP is less picky as it is visible in all–TABLE, TR, TD. Is my theory the truth or is there any other secrets that I am not aware of?

Answer: You should place this code in TD tag only. For example, <td align=”RIGHT” background=”images/peagreenswatch.gif”> However, if you imbed a table and use a image background, it will only look correct in IE(unless it is just a color swatch image). In Netscape, it will tile itself unless it is the TOP table. For example, if you put a form in a table for formatting, you can actually include all that code in another table and set the background image to whatever. In IE, it looks great, but in Netscape 4.6 or lower(which is still a MAJOR browser to design for) it tiles the image in EVERY <td> in the table that contains the form.

Actually, I find Netscape to be more picky about table cell background images, or any code in the <TR> and <TABLE> tags. If you stick with TD, you will keep it consistent. Additional code in <TABLE> and <TR> tags has always caused problems for me. Stick with the basics, and you will not have as many problems in your cross browser designs.

Author: Gina Hutchings
Copyright Lunar Media Inc
Chicago Web Design