Can I have everything I want?

[Valerie Lawrence]

Well, maybe that question's a little too broad... here's what I want to
do.

I have a page that I want to use a background graphic with blue on the
left, a thin black line, and white to the right.  So far, so good.  The
background graphic looks the way I want it to.  The page copy is all in a
table.  I want the table to be relative-sized (percentage rather than
pixels) so it will display "decently" (I know, relative term! I mean
without too much white space at the right) on any monitor resolution.  I
know it can't be perfect on all, but I want it to be acceptable on any and
I don't want low-res users to have to scroll to the right. My main problem
is that I want to force the navigation bar to display within the blue
area, and the main copy to display within the white area, for all
resolutions, for all browsers, for all time.  ;^)  Not that I'm a control
freak, or anything.

Can I do this?  If I size the table using percentages, can I still specify
that table cells be specific pixels wide -- and have any browser
understand this? I've already found, based on the table's current
specifications, that 1) the pages look awful at 640x480 and 2) Netscape
and IE interpret the size instructions differently.  NS will size the
table for the screen width (95%) but IE only fills up as much as the
graphics at the top of the page specify.  (I hope this makes sense; I'm
kind of fried.)  I keep thinking there's got to be something I'm missing
here that would make this easier/possible/etc.

Sample pages may be viewed at http://www.wschiro.edu/test -- there are
links to three options but they're all essentially the same except for the
photo in the upper left corner.

Ideas & suggestions will be much appreciated!

Val

Valerie Lawrence, MLS, Assistant Librarian	<lawrencv at ohsu.edu>
Western States Chiropractic College
2900 NE 132nd Ave.			       Voice  (503)251-5756
Portland, OR  97230			       Fax    (503)251-5759
Opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent those of 
my employer.  Goodness knows why they hired me.