help!

[robynne]

I am trying to amend the productline template to display a table of 2 rows and 3 columns for each product. The first row is to contain product image on the left (spanning one column) and product description etc to the right (spanning 2 columns).
The second row to contain price detail (including a link to currency converter (spanning 2 columns) and qty/add to cart on the right(1 column).
The problem i am having is that when i increase the colspan on row 2 for the first <td>, it screws up my layout of row1.

It might make more sense if you have a look at http://www.dislocate-records.com/acatalog/Basic_Products.html
(i have tried to describe my problem in the text of the first product - but basically, it's that big black space in the middle!).
My productline template is attached .

If you look at http://www.dislocate-records.com/acatalog/Dislocate_Releases.html, the Reason i am trying to change the second row is because i have included the currency conversion, and don't want it to wrap around - in fact if i can sort this out, i would probably like to put Jan/harlequins full solution in, but at present it just wraps around and around...

Could one of you gurus please please put me out of my misery?!
many thanks,
Robynne

Product line template:

<!-- ProductLine4 HTML begin -->
<!-- Insert HTML for the top of the individual product -->
NETQUOTEVAR:INCLUDE Act_ProductSeparator.html
NETQUOTEVAR:ENDSEPARATOR

NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTFORMBEGIN

<tr>

<td colspan="1" width="200" align="LEFT" valign="top">
NETQUOTEVAR:TEMPLATEBEGINXML
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTIMAGE
</td>

<td colspan="2" width="350" valign="TOP" align="LEFT">
<div align="left">
<a name="NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTANCHOR" href="(EmptyReference!)"><span class="prdname"><b>NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTNAME</b></span> </a><span class="actxsmall">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTREF<br></span>
<span class="prddesc">NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTDESCRIPTION<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; NETQUOTEVAR:EXTINFOLINK NETQUOTEVAR:EXTINFOBUTTON NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTBEGINLINKNETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTLINKTEXTNETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTENDLINK </span>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" align="LEFT" >

<!-- NETQUOTEVAR:PRICEEXPLANATION -->

<span class="prdprice"><b>NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTPRICE</b>

<!-- NETQUOTEVAR:OTHERINFOPROMPT
NETQUOTEVAR:DATEPROMPT <br> -->

</span>
</td>
<td valign="top" align="RIGHT">
<span class="actxsmall">
NETQUOTEVAR:CARTERRORXML
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTQUANTITY

<Actinic:ACTIONS>NETQUOTEVAR:ADDTOCARTBUTTON</Actinic:ACTIONS>
</span>
NETQUOTEVAR:TEMPLATEENDXML
</td>
</tr>
NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTFORMEND



NETQUOTEVAR:NEXT
<!-- ProductLine4 HTML begin -->

[chrisbrown]

Not quite sure what you are on about, but the first row first column has a width of 200 whereas the image in it has a width of 100. Isn't that why you are getting a lot of black space between the image and the text?

Hint try setting borders=1 temporarily when fixing up table layout problems - this usually helps spot the problem quickly.

[robynne]

Chris,
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
the width size doesn't seem to make any difference - i have now removed width reference altogether - in both columns. This is something i tried previously, but when it didn't work, i tried explicitly setting width to 100. same problem. i just tried the w= 200 to see if it made any difference - it didn't. The uploaded one now has no width reference (and one of my many local versions with width = 100, also has same problem).
what i want is for the text description to span the full 2 columns to the right of the image.
any other suggestions?
Robynne

[chrisbrown]

Hmmm...

Looks like it's an HTML thing. And it will probably be different in other browsers. I just made the attached file to try things out and the result is not really what you would expect.

Do you think that you really have to fix it?

[robynne]

yep, it's gotta be fixed !

[chrisbrown]

I have added some percentage widths to the test html and it does what you want I believe...

[robynne]

thanks heaps - i'll give it a go.

[pinbrook]

simply define the table with 2 columns, set the column for the image to 125, use font size 1 for the text "currency converter. And it will all fit

[robynne]

thanks heaps - i'll give it a go.

[robynne]

Sorry chaps - still no result here.

Chris' % widths proposition still wraps the 'currency converter' text over 2 lines.

Jo's column width 125 almost works (but only because that caters for the length of text (currency converter), but on closer inspection the product description text is set off to the right more than i'd like it to be(ie the image is only 100 wide, leaving 25 blank before the description).

Sorry to be pedantic, but a) ideally would like to have a longer string in place of the words 'currency converter' (eg. 'currency converter: Euros USD Other') - which would introduce that huge black space again - and
b)it's been haunting me for days - and i would like to conquer it!

in anticipation...,
Robynne

[pinbrook]

in which case you need a table within the table cell which contains the currency converter and add to basket. Merge the 2 columns and nest a table, you will be able to set the width more easily

I have found the easiest way to edit product templates is to put <table> and </table> tags into the code at the appropriate place whilst editting, ans then remove them before publishing

[robynne]

thanks Jo, I'll do that.
I was trying to avoid nesting yet another table within a table as i thought it would make the whole thing load slower, but i'll admit defeat and if ever i meet Mr HTML in a pub, I'll give him(or her) a problem log!
Alternatively, just one powerball...!
cheers
Robynne.