Table tag refuses to obey the CSS text-align property in non-compatibility mode in Internet Explorer

[Nathan Sokalski]

I have several locations on my site that have tables inside elements such as

divs that specify the text-align:center CSS property. When IE8 is not in

compatibility mode, this is ignored by tables that are children of the tag

the property is specified in. I have only noticed this with table tags.

Here is a simple page I have written to demonstrate this:

Table

​

When you run this in IE8, be sure to try viewing it in compatibility and

non-compatibility mode. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when

following standards, text-align:center should center any children. If IE6,

IE7, and IE8 Compatibility Mode follow this simple standard, why would

Microsoft not follow the standard in IE8's non-compatibility mode? Is this a

bug, is there some reason I don't know of, or is there really something

wrong with my code? Thanks.

--

Nathan Sokalski

njsokalski@hotmail.com

http://www.nathansokalski.com/

 

[rob^_^]

Understanding !Doctype - http://www.google.com/search?q=understanding

doctype





...... blah blah blah



















...... etc..





vs'





..... ditto above....



Confused? Validate your markup to your chosen DTD. Choose a DTD that will

accommodate the majority of your site visitors.



HTML and CSS are not programming languages. They are not compiled before

they are served up to a browser and so the standards are subject to

interpretation.



No seriously.... Unless you include a DTD with your examples they are

useless. See Quirksmode.org



Regards.



"Nathan Sokalski" wrote in message

news:F5C9784C-4B51-4EB5-A165-1D3152067716@microsoft.com...

> I have several locations on my site that have tables inside elements such

> as divs that specify the text-align:center CSS property. When IE8 is not

> in compatibility mode, this is ignored by tables that are children of the

> tag the property is specified in. I have only noticed this with table

> tags. Here is a simple page I have written to demonstrate this:

>

>

>

>

>

> Table

>​

>

>

>

> When you run this in IE8, be sure to try viewing it in compatibility and

> non-compatibility mode. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when

> following standards, text-align:center should center any children. If

> IE6, IE7, and IE8 Compatibility Mode follow this simple standard, why

> would Microsoft not follow the standard in IE8's non-compatibility mode?

> Is this a bug, is there some reason I don't know of, or is there really

> something wrong with my code? Thanks.

> --

> Nathan Sokalski

> njsokalski@hotmail.com

> http://www.nathansokalski.com/

 

[Nathan Sokalski]

I guess I've been developing web for so long that I didn't even bother to

copy that part to my post (but I did include it in my page when I tested,

honest). I used the Transitional in my code. I hesitate to use the Strict

because for the most part, my pages are generated with ASP.NET, which still

generates some html that Strict might not like. Do you think Strict would

make a difference with the text-align/table situation? Thanks.

--

Nathan Sokalski

njsokalski@hotmail.com

http://www.nathansokalski.com/



"rob^_^" wrote in message

news:58A0154B-BE86-4CF8-8101-2A23D25D06B1@microsoft.com...

> Understanding !Doctype - http://www.google.com/search?q=understanding

> doctype

>

> "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

> ..... blah blah blah

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> ...... etc..

>

>

> vs'

>

> "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

> .... ditto above....

>

> Confused? Validate your markup to your chosen DTD. Choose a DTD that will

> accommodate the majority of your site visitors.

>

> HTML and CSS are not programming languages. They are not compiled before

> they are served up to a browser and so the standards are subject to

> interpretation.

>

> No seriously.... Unless you include a DTD with your examples they are

> useless. See Quirksmode.org

>

> Regards.

>

> "Nathan Sokalski" wrote in message

> news:F5C9784C-4B51-4EB5-A165-1D3152067716@microsoft.com...

>> I have several locations on my site that have tables inside elements such

>> as divs that specify the text-align:center CSS property. When IE8 is not

>> in compatibility mode, this is ignored by tables that are children of the

>> tag the property is specified in. I have only noticed this with table

>> tags. Here is a simple page I have written to demonstrate this:

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> Table

>>​

>>

>>

>>

>> When you run this in IE8, be sure to try viewing it in compatibility and

>> non-compatibility mode. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when

>> following standards, text-align:center should center any children. If

>> IE6, IE7, and IE8 Compatibility Mode follow this simple standard, why

>> would Microsoft not follow the standard in IE8's non-compatibility mode?

>> Is this a bug, is there some reason I don't know of, or is there really

>> something wrong with my code? Thanks.

>> --

>> Nathan Sokalski

>> njsokalski@hotmail.com

>> http://www.nathansokalski.com/

>

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Developer-specific resources include:



MSDN IE Development Forum (post such questions here instead)

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/iewebdevelopment/threads



IE Developer Center

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/default.aspx



Learn IE8

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/aa740473.aspx



HTML and DHTML Overviews and Tutorials

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537623.aspx and



Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/aa740476.aspx



Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer (free, stand-alone visual

debugging tool for IE6, IE7, and IE8)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=8e6ac106-525d-45d0-84db-dccff3fae677



Expression Web SuperPreview Release Notes

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Web_SuperPreviewReleaseNotes.aspx



Validators:

http://validator.w3.org/

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/





Nathan Sokalski wrote:

> I have several locations on my site that have tables inside elements such

> as

> divs that specify the text-align:center CSS property. When IE8 is not in

> compatibility mode, this is ignored by tables that are children of the tag

> the property is specified in. I have only noticed this with table tags.

> Here is a simple page I have written to demonstrate this:

>

>

>

>

>

> Table

>​

>

>

>

> When you run this in IE8, be sure to try viewing it in compatibility and

> non-compatibility mode. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when

> following standards, text-align:center should center any children. If

> IE6,

> IE7, and IE8 Compatibility Mode follow this simple standard, why would

> Microsoft not follow the standard in IE8's non-compatibility mode? Is this

> a

> bug, is there some reason I don't know of, or is there really something

> wrong with my code? Thanks.

 

[rob^_^]

Hi Nathan,



I am pulling your chain (a bit). The snippets that I supplied are from one

of my own asp.net master pages that I have developed and tested to be

browser agnostic. What it doesn't show you are the external stylesheets that

I use and the style rules for the block elements and the complexity of

trying to make things work in all browsers. (including IE7)



As you can see it is a mixture of depreciated attributes, conditional

comments, style rules and a transitional DTD to get it to work (as expected)

on all browsers. What I am trying to get across is that regardless of the

'standards', to code for the wild, you end up using rules and other

workarounds to "make it work".



"When IE8 is not in Compatibility mode" can mean two things, IE8 is using

either the Quirks or IE8 Standards rendering (browser) mode, so yes

including your DTD in your samples is important. You will find that

switching the IE8 browser mode is not exactly the same as running your pages

in the native ie versions.



Anyway..... the end game is that MS has closed down feedback for IE8 at

connect and are not taking any more issue reports or feature requests. I

haven't checked if this issue has been reported before but they also have a

test suite of css rules at http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/ietestcenter .



I suppose the end game now is that there may still be outstanding issues

with IE8, but there is nothing we can do (at this time) to get it changed or

corrected. Developers (us) will just have to live with it and use

workarounds to 'make it work' as expected.



Regards.



"Nathan Sokalski" wrote in message

news:8867ADD7-87B4-4F72-A9C6-5A697C08D1DE@microsoft.com...

> I guess I've been developing web for so long that I didn't even bother to

> copy that part to my post (but I did include it in my page when I tested,

> honest). I used the Transitional in my code. I hesitate to use the Strict

> because for the most part, my pages are generated with ASP.NET, which

> still generates some html that Strict might not like. Do you think Strict

> would make a difference with the text-align/table situation? Thanks.

> --

> Nathan Sokalski

> njsokalski@hotmail.com

> http://www.nathansokalski.com/

>

> "rob^_^" wrote in message

> news:58A0154B-BE86-4CF8-8101-2A23D25D06B1@microsoft.com...

>> Understanding !Doctype - http://www.google.com/search?q=understanding

>> doctype

>>

>> > "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

>> ..... blah blah blah

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> ...... etc..

>>

>>

>> vs'

>>

>> > "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

>> .... ditto above....

>>

>> Confused? Validate your markup to your chosen DTD. Choose a DTD that will

>> accommodate the majority of your site visitors.

>>

>> HTML and CSS are not programming languages. They are not compiled before

>> they are served up to a browser and so the standards are subject to

>> interpretation.

>>

>> No seriously.... Unless you include a DTD with your examples they are

>> useless. See Quirksmode.org

>>

>> Regards.

>>

>> "Nathan Sokalski" wrote in message

>> news:F5C9784C-4B51-4EB5-A165-1D3152067716@microsoft.com...

>>> I have several locations on my site that have tables inside elements

>>> such as divs that specify the text-align:center CSS property. When IE8

>>> is not in compatibility mode, this is ignored by tables that are

>>> children of the tag the property is specified in. I have only noticed

>>> this with table tags. Here is a simple page I have written to

>>> demonstrate this:

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> Table

>>>​

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> When you run this in IE8, be sure to try viewing it in compatibility and

>>> non-compatibility mode. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that when

>>> following standards, text-align:center should center any children. If

>>> IE6, IE7, and IE8 Compatibility Mode follow this simple standard, why

>>> would Microsoft not follow the standard in IE8's non-compatibility mode?

>>> Is this a bug, is there some reason I don't know of, or is there really

>>> something wrong with my code? Thanks.

>>> --

>>> Nathan Sokalski

>>> njsokalski@hotmail.com

>>> http://www.nathansokalski.com/

>>

>