How do I ensure Visual Studio 2005 displays the tables and images correctly?

Answer 1

I haven't played with "Save for Web" feature, but i'm pretty sure that the output html, except for the table markup and images, should also contain some css styles that define the display behavior of the whole page.

So, when importing the html into VS, make sure associated styles are transfered too.

Also don't forget And to ensure HTML validity - you can choose the conformance level of your web app in the web.config or project properties (or just in the html editor - set Target Schema to XHTML Transitional and you should be sure that the html you got from Photoshop will be validated properly.

Answer 2

Personally i have never trusted and rarely use the design view in Visual studio and generally have it set to the code view for all pages. I tend to keep working versions of files open in IE and Firefox to enable me to see their layout however this can cause issues when trying to view multi-step forms etc. In these cases i always tend to put some code in place to enable me to select which state / step i wish to see without going through all the rigmorals of going through each step to test it.

Remember that in VS you can right click on a file in the project explorer and select to view it in a web browser. you can also add various different browsers to VS preferences allowing you to select the browser you wish to see the file in.

I realise that this is not an anwser but hope it is useful.

Answer 3

The designer of Visual Studio 2005 seems to struggle with rendering certain HTML content. As Toby said, the best way to work around the problem is to preview the page in a web browser as opposed to working with the designer.

The other alternative of course is to use Visual Studio 2008, it uses the same web designer component that is used in Expression Web. I haven't used Visual Studio 2008 extensively for web projects yet, but from what I've seen it is very impressive! Visual Studio 2008 also has the "Split" view option, which allows you to see the designer while you are editing the HTML (no more switching between source and design view and it taking a couple of minutes to catch up with you!)