div css troubles

[bopritchard]

i've just started converting my old table layouts to css divs...i'm having a couple of issues that i can't seem to figure out...

http://www.raleighchristian.com/2005/rca/index.html

1)bottom right there is a <div> red block that says news...the style that's being used for it has the same properties as the calendar one right next to it...so why is the font size bigger for the news one?

2) in that gold section under the red Calendar block there is a break where the blue from the left is pushing over into the red section...why?

3) the dashed line underneath of the items on the left...is there a way i can shorten the length of the line so that it doesn't extend out to the left of the text above it

next couple questions are browser differences
1)firefox-leftnav item links are grey and red on hover...which is correct
ie-the left nav is red, which is wrong...

2)firefox-leftnav bold headings in the blue boxes extend out to the left of the the blue box....
ie-lines up correctly on the left....neither line up on right

i know these are a bunch of questions but i'd really appreciate any help...

 

[Vragabond]

First, add a proper doctype. Is this the non table design already? Because it is still ridden with tables. Anyway doctypes are available here:

http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/valid-dtd-list.html

Now, to look at your problems:
1. But it is not. At least not in my Mozilla or IE6.
2. I couldn't find any explanation for this. Could be a quirks thing that proper doctype will fix.
3. You could make links blocks and apply border to them. Then the line would be only under the text... Is that what you want?

Browser differences will be best resolved by adding the doctype.

 

[bopritchard]

how do i know which doctype to use?

 

[Vragabond]

From your programing style I would go for XHTML 1.0 Transitional. Or if you find that one too restrictive, HTML 4.01 Strict.

 

[bopritchard]

i've tried both and neither help with the browser differences...any other suggestions?

 

[Vragabond]

Update the page on the internet and let us see you use the doctype, have fixed validation errors and are experiencing browser differences.

 

[bopritchard]

No
Doc type

xhtml 1.0 transitional

html 4.01 strict