[thelist] Horizontal scrollbar in IE 6.0 frames caused by DOCTYPE tag

Mon Feb 25 07:13:00 CST 2002

Hello,

After days searching for the reason why I.E. 6.0 generates a horizontal
scrollbar in a frame where there shouldn't be one, I discovered that the
simple presence of the DOCTYPE-tag in de HTML-file triggers this odd
behavior. If that html-file is openend as a stand-alone file, I.E. 6.0
does not produce that behavior, or, if that line is deleted from the
html-file, the horizontal scrolbar also does not appear any longer.

As I want to validate all of my html-pages up to the HTML 4.01 standard,
some time ago I started to include the following DOCTYPE tag in my
html-files:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

When upgrading to I.E. 6.0 the hrizontal scrollbar emerged. Netscape
Navigator 4.5 and 6.01 have no problems with the doctype tag.

The difference can easily be seen using following links:

http://docent.hogent.be/~ldc392/WELCOME.HTM
a page which defines the frameset

Clicking in the navigationbar at the fifth label ("Inleiding Educ. soft")
opens the file

http://docent.hogent.be/~ldc392/EDUCSOFT.HTM
in the upper frame, resulting in a horizontal bar (which isn't of any use
at all in this case).

Whereas opening that file independent from the frameset, no horizontal
scrollbar is generated.

As for the moment I have no other solution than to remove the DOCTYPE-tag
in the html-file, but I don't like this solution.

In the knowledge-base of Microsoft I couldn't find a similar problem or
solution.

Best regards
--
Lucas De Cocker
mailto:lucas.decocker at hogent.be
http://docent.hogent.be/~ldc392