Width and Scrollbar problems

Hello,

This is the site- http://lehrmangroup.com/design/ie.

I cannot figure out why the header and footer is stopping just shy of the edge of the browser window nor why it is giving scrollbars.

Any ideas how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

Also...when I put more text into the left hand column, how can i make it so that the footer does not cover the text, but the page just gets longer?

Thanks in advance for any help!

-adam

 

First, you haven't defined a doctype which means that the browser goes into quirks-mode:
http://alistapart.com/stories/doctype/

Second, you are using absolute positioning which is a bad solution and is not needed for this type of design. You can find some pre made layout if you follow the link in my signature, but there are also others out there, also some at alistapart.com if I'm not wrong.
Third, I couldn't see anything about setting margin or padding to 0 on neither body or divs, this could cause your horisontal scrollbar.

 

Thanks for the reply, mano.
How do I know which doctype to use? The article wasn't too clear.
Why is absolute positioning a bad idea? Are columns a more correct way?