Hi,

Have spent the afternoon learning all about changing the document flow and positioning.

Just a couple of pointers I'd like to clarify:

In EW when creating a new style, in the positioning category there are properties for top, right, bottom, left.  During my experimentation, these properties only seem to have an effect when used in conjunction with the Position: Absolute/Relative/Fixed properties.  Is this the case or can they be used in other ways.

Regarding Position: Relative, I know the definition is that this property "moves an element relative to its normal position", but what is meant by normal position and how is it defined: 

• Do you have to have two of the same elements (ie divs or paragraphs), one after the other, so that one uses the "normal position" and the other can be defined using Position: Relative. 
• Will an element using Position: Relative just calculate its relative position from its parent container, whatever that may be.

I realise that I might be tying myself up in knots, but if some kind soul could put my straight I'd appreciate it.

In the meantime, I need a drink ;-)

TIA - Chris

Normal is where in the page the item would be if it were left alone and displayed according to the source code order. Relative is offset from the location of the next HTML parent while position absolute is from the nearest positioned parent. How'd that for confusing. I would suggest getting a good CSS book. We use on in our CSS classes I highly recommend, see http://starttoweb.com and look at the CSS class page. (I'm not on my regular computer but one I'm in the process of setting up or I'd give you a direct link.

You might also want to run through the http://w3schools.com and its css section (free) for a background class. 

Thanks Cheryl, I think I was over complicating myself.

While following the example on P143/144 of your book, I read to much into the fact that 2 <divs> were used.  I understand now that they were used just to illustrate the effect of using position relative, but are not usually required.

Could you also clarify this bit for me as well:

"In EW when creating a new style, in the positioning category there are properties for top, right, bottom, left.  During my experimentation, these properties only seem to have an effect when used in conjunction with the Position: Absolute/Relative/Fixed properties.  Is this the case or can they be used in other ways."

TIA - Chris