Dynamic Web Template Problem

[Matt Fielder]

I have created a Dynamic Web Template in FrontPage 2003. It has a table with
two columns with three rows in each column. The only thing, the rows aren't
the same height in each column. The column on the left has two short header
cells, followed by a body cell that takes up most of the page. The column on
the right has a picture in the top cell (the picture extends down into the
body portion of the left-hand column). The second row is the navigation and
the bottom row is an editable region that can expand to take variable text.
There are also three rows at the bottom of the table that span both columns.
The table was created a cell at a time using the Draw Layout Table tool.

The problem I'm having is that when there is a lot of text in the body
section, all three rows in the right hand section are expanding evenly to
accommodate it. What I need is for the top two rows to stay the same size
and the bottom row to expand. I've tried placing a background picture in
these rows, making sure the height is in pixels instead of percent, and
played with the absolute position options. Nothing I do makes any
difference. Oddly, I don't get that sizing issue with the top rows in the
column on the left.

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated. I've been beating my
head against this one and can't get it to work.

 

[Ronx]

One way of dealing with this is to nest tables.

Main table - one row, two cells, footer - three rows, one column
<table>
<tr><td valign="top">col1</td><td valign="top">col2</td></tr>
</table>
<table>
<tr><td>footer1</td></tr>
<tr><td>footer2</td></tr>
<tr><td>footer3</td></tr>
</table>

In col1, place a table for the left navigation - 2 rows, one column.
The rows can expand downwards as much, or as little, as required without
affecting the col2.

In col2, place a table for the body and header - 3 rows one column
Again, these can expand without affecting col1.

Using the table drawing tool will give you bloated code, which will not
validate since it introduces the invalid table height attribute. Using
Table->Insert Table is a much better option.

 

[Matt Fielder]

Thanks for the reply. That worked. Thanks for letting me know about the
problems with the draw table tool, too. I'll stop using that.