Menu bar trouble, only with IE

Question

Hi,
I've just built a website for my business from scratch using Dreamweaver CS5 having had no previous experience with web design; this is my first site. I have uploaded the files and the website works as expected on all the main browsers except Internet Explorer. The problem relates to the spry menu bar; on most browsers, it displays as ten distinct "boxes" stacked above each other in a column, however in IE the boxes are all bunched together, with two on some rows. Looking at www.kirkdale-nursery.co.uk in IE and another browser will give you a better idea of what I mean.
What should I be looking to do to fix this? The browser compatibility tab highlights "href="../SpryAssets/SpryMenuBarVertical.css" as an issue, if that helps. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Here is the css sheet I'm using:
@charset "UTF-8";
/* SpryMenuBarVertical.css - version 0.6 - Spry Pre-Release 1.6.1 */
/* Copyright (c) 2006. Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. */
LAYOUT INFORMATION: describes box model, positioning, z-order
/* The outermost container of the Menu Bar, a fixed width box with no margin or padding */
ul.MenuBarVertical
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
list-style-type: none;
font-size: 100%;
cursor: default;
width: 230px;
font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;
background-color: #060;
background-repeat: repeat;
border-top-width: 0px;
border-right-width: 0px;
border-bottom-width: 0px;
border-left-width: 0px;
border-top-style: none;
border-right-style: solid;
border-bottom-style: solid;
border-left-style: solid;
position: relative;
/* Set the active Menu Bar with this class, currently setting z-index to accomodate IE rendering bug: http://therealcrisp.xs4all.nl/meuk/IE-zindexbug.html */
ul.MenuBarActive
z-index: 1000;
/* Menu item containers, position children relative to this container and are same fixed width as parent */
ul.MenuBarVertical li
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
list-style-type: none;
font-size: 100%;
position: relative;
text-align: left;
cursor: pointer;
width: 230;
border: thin solid #FFF;
/* Submenus should appear slightly overlapping to the right (95%) and up (-5%) with a higher z-index, but they are initially off the left side of the screen (-1000em) */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul
margin: -5% 0 0 95%;
padding: 0;
list-style-type: none;
font-size: 100%;
position: absolute;
z-index: 1020;
cursor: default;
width: 8.2em;
left: -1000em;
top: 0;
/* Submenu that is showing with class designation MenuBarSubmenuVisible, we set left to 0 so it comes onto the screen */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
left: 0;
/* Menu item containers are same fixed width as parent */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul li
width: 8.2em;
DESIGN INFORMATION: describes color scheme, borders, fonts
/* Outermost menu container has borders on all sides */
ul.MenuBarVertical
border: 0px none #CCC;
width: 230px;
float: none;
background-color: #060;
/* Submenu containers have borders on all sides */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul
border: 1px solid #CCC;
/* Menu items are a light gray block with padding and no text decoration */
ul.MenuBarVertical a
display: block;
cursor: pointer;
background-color: #060;
padding: 0.5em 0.75em;
color: #FFF;
text-decoration: none;
/* Menu items that have mouse over or focus have a blue background and white text */
ul.MenuBarVertical a:hover, ul.MenuBarVertical a:focus
background-color: #060;
color: #FFF;
font-weight: bold;
font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;
background-image: url(../Images/maple_leaf_small.gif);
background-position: right;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
/* Menu items that are open with submenus are set to MenuBarItemHover with a blue background and white text */
ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemHover, ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover, ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
background-color: #060;
color: #FFF;
background-image: url(../Images/maple_leaf_small.gif);
background-position: right;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
SUBMENU INDICATION: styles if there is a submenu under a given menu item
/* Menu items that have a submenu have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenu and are set to use a background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemSubmenu
background-image: url(SpryMenuBarRight.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: 95% 50%;
/* Menu items that are open with submenus have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenuHover and are set to use a "hover" background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover
background-image: url(SpryMenuBarRightHover.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: 95% 50%;
BROWSER HACKS: the hacks below should not be changed unless you are an expert
/* HACK FOR IE: to make sure the sub menus show above form controls, we underlay each submenu with an iframe */
ul.MenuBarVertical iframe
position: absolute;
z-index: 1010;
filter:alpha(opacity:0.1);
/* HACK FOR IE: to stabilize appearance of menu items; the slash in float is to keep IE 5.0 from parsing */
@media screen, projection
ul.MenuBarVertical li.MenuBarItemIE
display: inline;
f\loat: left;
background: #FFF;
#container_2 #lower_centre_column {
font-size: 18px;
#container_2 #lower_centre_column {