Problem with button, hovering causes text below to disappear Options

[elwhyte]

website is:

www.startmakingprogress.com

Hover over the "Read Me" button and the text below disappears.

I am using IE 7

This is somehow related to an Active X control (Shockwave, I believe) being enabled. When it is disabled, the behavior is fine.

I am an HTML feeb, so please be very specific with questions or suggestions. Thank you.

[Darin McGrew]

What "Read Me" button?

BTW, the "Seminar Topics" section is hidden behind overflow:hidden in Safari, because the group of three sections doesn't clear the photo.

[elwhyte]

I'm sorry.. "Read More..." button.

I'm not sure I'm picturing what you describe about the topics not clearing the photo -- I don't know what "overflow" is. I'm assuming it's because the centered text beside the photo isn't as long as the photo? How do I fix that? Force some breaks?

Thank you for your help.

[pandy]

It doesn't happen in IE6. Seeing you have specific style sheets for IE6 and 7, maybe you should look into that.

Considering what you said above, you use pretty advanced CSS. What's all that clipping for? Just curious and too lazy to find out for myself.

[elwhyte]

I created the template for the website with Artisteer. I know virtually NOTHING about HTML or style sheets, other than that they exist and control how things look.

I don't know what clipping is.

I tried looking in style.css (and style.ie6.css and style.ie7.css) for definitions of the button, but I don't know what I'm looking for. I couldn't find anything that shouted out "make everything disappear when someone hovers over this button" ).

If you tell me what you need to see, I'll be happy to try to cut and paste the relevant sections for you.

[elwhyte]

BTW.. I have IE7... and as I say, I can make it happen/disappear by turning the control for shockwave on and off.

[pandy]

I created the template for the website with Artisteer. I know virtually NOTHING about HTML or style sheets, other than that they exist and control how things look.

And I don't know what Artisteer is, but the CSS looks peculiar.

If you tell me what you need to see, I'll be happy to try to cut and paste the relevant sections for you.

I don't know before I see it. To be honest it's no fun to try to make sense of some program's output. You more often than not end up rewriting the whole thing. Anyway, it looks a like the infamous Guillotine Bug.
http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/guillotine.html

Problem is, that wouldn't have anything to do with either Active-X or Shockwave and it would be there in IE6 too.

[Darin McGrew]

Please see the FAQ entries Where can I learn about HTML? and Where can I learn about CSS?

[elwhyte]

Artister (artisteer.com) is a little program that lets you create templates for webpages. It's pretty slick for a feeb like me. You just noodle around and make it look the way you want, and export it. The trick then is taking the template and putting in your own content -- and therein likes the difficulty for a feeb like me.

I mostly get by finding the words from the page in the html, and then changing them to my own content. Like seeing what the artisteer template menus said -- finding those words, and inserting the words I want for my menus.

I can't create anything out of whole cloth -- I can only do very rudimentary modifications.

Thank you for the links to learn more about HTML and CSS... whenever I go to such places and try to figure out something when I have a particular question, it's like a new language to me and my eyes glaze over. I simply don't understand the words.

I want to work on marketing my business... I don't want to become a web designer.

I don't need the best damned website in the whole world.. I just want some simple content out that looks somewhat professional.

Since none of you seems to have seen my problem, perhaps I'll just let it go. Or take out the button completely.

Thank you for your help. I'm sure it's frustrating for you to try to communicate with me when I know so little. (you know the old saying.. "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" ??)

[elwhyte]

See? I can't even post properly!

[pandy]

It's hard for me to test because I don't have IE7.

When you say Active-X, do you mean active scripting? IIRC that's what MS calls the option to turn off JavaScript. That it would have anything to do with Active-X and Shockwave doesn't make sense to me.

[pandy]

Thank you for the links to learn more about HTML and CSS... whenever I go to such places and try to figure out something when I have a particular question, it's like a new language to me and my eyes glaze over. I simply don't understand the words.

That's because you go there with a particular question. You are supposed to start at the beginning and work your way through, to get an understanding for what you are doing. When you have finished the tutorial you may have the answer to your question. If not, you'll know enough to ask better questions and you'll get better help.

Just so you don't misunderstand, I'm not referring to your question here. I meant it generally. It's often hard to communicate if one doesn't know that basics of the matter at hand.

[elwhyte]

When you say Active-X, do you mean active scripting? IIRC that's what MS calls the option to turn off JavaScript. That it would have anything to do with Active-X and Shockwave doesn't make sense to me.

When I look at the webpage through my browser, I see the behavior. When I "test" the webpage through my HMTL Editor (from Coffee Cup), it is fine. However, there is a message at the top of the browser window (ONLY when I'm "testing").. that says the browser has disabled "scripts or Active X controls"... when I click that message and allow the controls, the behavior appears.

I don't understand why the message pops up only in the testing.

Since you mention javascript.... originally, (in the template passed from Artisteer), the code for the button was:

"a class="art-button" href="java script:void(0)" Read more..."

and I saw the behavior. I tried to fix it, by changing it to be:

"a class="art-button"
href="story.html" Read more..."

Just so you don't misunderstand, I'm not referring to your question here. I meant it generally. It's often hard to communicate if one doesn't know that basics of the matter at hand.

I understand that. It is overwhelming to me to look at the magnitude of what I would need to learn. My mind doesn't work that way. I don't have to be a mechanic to drive my car, and I don't have to understand how the engine works to describe to the mechanic what's wrong with the car.

[pandy]

But you pay a mechanic to take care of your car, right? I fail to see the parallel.

[elwhyte]

But you pay a mechanic to take care of your car, right? I fail to see the parallel.

I thought I might get something like that... How's this.. I don't have to be a CPA to do my taxes. I buy TurboTax, which makes it all accessible to me.

[pandy]

Likewise you can pay someone to create your site. But you aren't doing that, are you? Here, we're kinda into helping people to learn, not so much into doing the job for them.

I'd still give it a try, but since I don't have IE7 I would need to use a VNC service and upload your files to another server so I can change them. That seems a little over the top when you state you don't want to do anything yourself.

[elwhyte]

I'm 57 years old, and the first exposure I had to anything even close to a word processor was in 1975 and was basically an IBM selectric that had been hooked up to two tape decks, which recorded keystrokes so they could be played back. There was no screen. You recorded as you typed, and then if you needed to edit, you played back the tape to the point where you needed to change, then you recorded a new stroke, deleted the previously recorded one, and then played it. That worked as long as you had a one-to-one exchange on the edit. If you needed to insert a paragrah, you had to use both tapes. You'd play one tape, recording on the other, until you got to the spot.. then you'd insert from the typewriter, then you'd play the remainder. It was cumbersome at best, but the alternative was to retype it all from scratch.

When I used my first word processor with a screen, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Unbelievable what a diffrence actually SEEING what you were doing made.

When computers replaced straight word processors, word processing software came in. I remember WordStar with all the damned dot commands. I remember Word Perfect where you shifted between WYSIWYG and the underlying codes if you needed to "get down and dirty."

And then Microsoft came out with WORD and that was pretty much it. It just worked and you didn't have to get under the covers anymore to see what was going on.

I thought I had a simple question. Evidently it is not.

[elwhyte]

I fixed it!!!

I figured out how to make the middle part a distinct section, the same way the bottom part "Who should attend..." is, and it's fine now.

Darin, I would like to know if that fixes the problem you noted in Safari.

Thank you all for your patience and good humor.

[Darin McGrew]

Darin, I would like to know if that fixes the problem you noted in Safari.

Yep. That section clears the one above it just fine now.