tcervo

Can you post an example on your site (or just point to one that already exists) that shows what the result will be once an item is added?
Also, is there a way to embed your Amazon Associates ID?
Thanks…

Over 50 posts, and afik, all are valid xhtml1.1 strict. I’ve tested (randomly) about 6 posts with comments, and all validate.
I want valid markup so that if/when new browsing devices come out (better cell phone browsers, PDA’s, set top boxes, connected DVR’s, whatever), I can be pretty certain my site will work. It already works as is on my cell phone and my Palm, with no “alternate” or WAP versions needed. A non compliant (particularly table based) site probably won’t have such luck. I run across sites all the time that I can’t view on my PDA…which sucks when I’m just trying to look something up while sitting at the pub.
I also want my site to be accessible. I have 2 co-workers who use assistive devices – one is blind, the other has very poor eyesight and must use a screen reader. Who knows who else might find a post of mine via Google or a link on some other blog? Do I know what browsing devide they’re using? No. So, I make sure my code is valid and accessible, and can feel pretty safe that I’m not locking anyone out unnessesarily.
The thing that gets me about compliance issues is: with a blog, it’s pretty damn easy to produce valid markup. So the big question is: why wouldn’t you?

There’s a period at the end…just delete it and the 404 goes away.

Glad you’ve got it figured out…like the layout, btw.

i removed every li and ul in the css and in the index.php, but they’re still there.

Bingo. To turn off the bullets, you must do so in the CSS. So, by removing every li and us in the CSS…you’ve essentially shot yourself in the foot.

You can create the functionality of frames using CSS…for what it’s worth.
Check this:
https://www.stunicholls.myby.co.uk/layouts/frame.html
https://www.webmasterworld.com/forum83/618.htm

There are some resources out there that can produce a tree-like structure (sort of, but more like flyout menus…), but they’ll take a bit of modification of your code.
Here’s a good one that’s xhtml compliant, accessible (508 compliant), and uses unordered lists to accomplish the feat. The problem is that you’ll need to modify your list to include the proper id and class values (as explained on their website). I haven’t tried it myself, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to get working.
Note: don’t worry about the “Purchase” link on the site. When you go to that page, you’ll notice that it’s free for personal non-commercial use as long as you include a link-back.

Not sure, but it could be because you’re setting the left margin and padding to zero in div.storycontent for both ul and ol?

Oisin – yes, that’s correct.
Using root relative paths (/css/screen.css) means “start at the root of this domain, then look for the css folder, then find the screen.css file.” The root of the domain is the highest level of your domain. For example, on this board it would be https://www.ads-software.com. For my site it would be https://www.tcervo.com. Etc…
To sum up the difference between root relative and document relative:
Site-root-relative paths always begin at the site root of the current server (which will be accessed via your domain name). All files on the site that are visible to the public branch from the site root. Site-root-relative paths begin with a slash that identifies the site root. Using site-root-relative paths, links continue to work even if the document is moved within the site.
Document-relative paths are relative to the directory containing the current document. For example, document.htm specifies a document in the current directory, ../document.htm specifies a document in the directory above the current directory, and htmldocs/document.htm specifies a document in a subdirectory named htmldocs of the current directory.
Not to confuse things even more, but there are also paths known as absolute paths. All these are are paths that contain the full URI (https://www.mysite.com/css/mycssfile.css).
Let’s say we were in the folder https://www.mysite.com/wp/, and our css file was located at https://www.mysite.com/css/. Here are the three different path types to point to the css file called styles.css located in the css folder, assuming we’re linking from a file (say, index.php) in side the wp folder:
Root relative (best method): /css/styles.css
This says: start at the root, then go forward to the css folder.
Document relative: ../css/styles.css
(This says: go up one level from the wp folder, which brings us back to the root folder, then go forward to the css folder.)
Absolute: https://www.mysite.com/css/styles.css
Self explanatory. Notice the similarity to root relative path. It’s the same with the https://www.mysite.com part taken off.
Now, just for sake of example, let’s say we moved the css folder *inside* the wp folder. Now the links would be:
Root relative (best method): /wp/css/styles.css
This says: start at the root, then go forward to the wp folder, then forward to the css folder.
Document relative: css/styles.css
(This says: start in the folder we’re currently in (wp) and go forward to the css folder)
Absolute: https://www.mysite.com/wp/css/styles.css
Self explanatory. Notice the similarity to root relative path. It’s the same with the https://www.mysite.com part taken off.
Last example. Let’s say we create another folder inside wp called “archives”. So, we’re now in https://www.mysite.com/wp/archives/index.php. What will our css link look like?
Root relative: stays the same. Since our css file hasn’t moved (it’s still in /wp/css/styles.css), the link still works. No matter *where* in the site we’re calling it from. (See why this is the best method?)
Document relative: If we try to use the same path as before, it will break. Our most recent example had us “start in the folder we’re currently in, and go forward to the css folder.” Well, we’re now in the /wp/archives/ folder, so that path no longer works. We’d have to change it to ../css/styles.css. This can be a pain if you have many directories or you move things around alot.
Absolute: stays the same.
Hope this makes it clearer. (Yeah, right, clear as mud…)

And does the system continue? Does …/css/styles.css mean ‘go up two levels and look for the folder css?

No. To go up two levels using relative paths, you’d use ../../css/styles.css
As was said earlier, though, relative paths are a bad idea. Use root relative (/css/styles.css) and it’s never an issue no matter what directory of the site you’re in (as long as you don’t move /css/sytles.css, that is…)

Here may be part of the problem:

The real issue here is that the board allows guest posting, and I cannot edit the post that I have posted while being anonymous, or posting with a mispelled username.

Who’s to say (for certain) that it was really you who posted those? I’m not saying you don’t know what you did or didn’t post, but how are the admins supposed to know? I could ask them to remove a particular anon post, saying it was me and that I’d like it deleted, but who’s to say I didn’t just pick a post I didn’t like from someone else? See, it opens up a whole can of worms…

If I right-click where the background image should be, and select “View Background Image”, it loads. One thing though, the image is 156k in size. That’s *huge*. Someone on dialup will be screwed.
Now, on to the CSS: you’ve defined the background image for the #content div, not the #header div. You’ve got #header set to display:none.
Try this instead:
remove the background image from #content. Change your header section slightly to make the heading an h1 instead of an h2 (it’s the main heading on your page, so should be an h1, plus the search engines will like it better.)
Next, change your CSS for #header and #header h1 to this:
div#header { height: 225px; background: url(pears.png) no-repeat 0 0; }
div#header h1 { margin: 0; padding: 0; display: none; }
That should do it…

I’m still getting that behavior as well on my test install. I haven’t tried Stewart’s solution yet, but will give it a try.
On my live site, I’m still “faking” it, but it’s working well. I simply create a link category for each parent category, then create links to each sub category. So, I don’t really display categories at all…just links. If Stewart’s solution works, then I can abandon the workaround…

It’s good to be back. Been busy with life and other things…

You have your flash movie read and parse your XML feed…that way you could include it anywhere on the main page you want…There are resources out there that explain integrating XML with flash. Here’s one, in case you’ve never done it:
https://www.studiowhiz.com/tutorials/24/
I’ve done it once, and it was pretty easy (just a smidge of ActionScript).
BTW, using XML parsing is a good way to integrate your blog contents into just about any type of web page. Just consume the RSS feed and away you go…