I think I am using the wrong position codes for my layout too, but the first thing I'd like to remedy is the navigation menu. Trying to get the "li a" text to be to the top left of the link item and the "li" text to be at the bottom right... here is the xhtml with embedded css(some Japanese text in page content, don't worry): <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title>木津å·å°æ¯ç§‘</title> <style type="text/css"> body { margin-top: 0; background-color:#FFF; /*text-align:center; hack for IE?*/ text-align:center; } div#container { width: 700px; background:#00FF33; margin-top: 0; text-align:left; border:thin solid #666666; } div#header { background-image:url(images/toplogo.png); background-color:#fff; width:100%; overflow:auto; background-repeat: no-repeat; } h1 { margin-top:0px; margin-left:120px; } h2 { margin-top:40px; margin-left:120px; } div#content_top{ width:100%; background-color:#3333FF; overflow:auto; } div#content_bottom{ width:100%; background-color:#FF00FF; overflow:auto; } div#footer2{ background-color:#FFFFFF } div#topmenu{ float:right; } li#topmenulist { line-height: 49px; float:left; list-style-type:none; /*margin-left: -40px;*/ margin-right:0px; margin-top:0px; padding-right:10px; padding-left:10px; background-image:url(images/topmenubk1.png); font-size: 10px; border-right-width: thin; border-right-style: solid; border-right-color: #999999; } li#topmenulist_selected { line-height: 49px; float:left; list-style-type:none; /*margin-left: -40px;*/ margin-right:0px; margin-top:0px; padding-right:10px; padding-left:10px; background-image:url(images/topmenubk2.png); font-size: 10px; border-right-width: thin; border-right-style: solid; border-right-color: #999999; } li#topmenulist a { display:block; text-decoration: none; } li#topmenulist_selected a { display:block; text-decoration: none; color:black; } li#topmenulist a:hover { display:block; text-decoration: none; background-image:url(images/topmenubk1.png); } div#telephone{ float:right; } div#leftmenu{ float:left; width:200px; } div#flash{ float:right; background-color:#fff; } li#leftmenulist { line-height: 36px; background: url(images/menulist.png) no-repeat; list-style-type:none; padding: 0; margin-left: -40px; padding-top:0px; color:red ; font-size: 10px; } li#leftmenulist a { color: white; text-decoration: none; font-size:150%; margin-left: 5px; } li#leftmenulist a:hover { color: black; text-decoration: none; font-size:150%; margin-left: 5px; margin-top:-5px; } div#footer1{ width:100%; height:30px; float:right; font-size:50%; } li#footer_list{ line-height: 30px; float:left; list-style-type:none; /*margin-left: -40px;*/ margin-right:10px; background-color:yellow; font-size: 10px; } div#footer2{ float:left; width:100%; } div#left_content{ float:left; width:50%; } div#right_content{ float:right; width:50%; } </style> </head> <body> <div id="container"> <div id="header"> <div id="topmenu"> <ul> <li id="topmenulist_selected"><a href="#">HOME</a></li> <li id="topmenulist"><a href="#">ã”予約・ãŠå•åˆã›</a></li> <li id="topmenulist"><a href="#">æ±‚äººæƒ…å ±</a></li> </ul> </div> <img name="toplogo" /> <h2>å¦ç ”都市インプラントセンター</h2> <h1>木津å·å°æ¯ç§‘ãƒ»çŸ¯æ£æ¯ç§‘</h1> <div id="telephone"> <p>ã„ーæ¯ã“ã“よ</p> <p>TEL. 0774-71-8553</p> </div> </div> <div id="content_top"> <div id="leftmenu"> <ul> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">一般æ¯ç§‘</a>general dentistry</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">インプラント</a>dental implant</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">審美æ¯ç§‘</a>esthetic dentistry</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">予防æ¯ç§‘</a>preventative dentistry</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">çŸ¯æ£æ¯ç§‘</a>orthodontic dentistry</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">クリニックã®ã”案内</a>information</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">ã”予約・ãŠå•åˆã›</a>online appintment</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">無料フォト診æ–</a>free diagnosis</li> <li id="leftmenulist"><a href="#">無料メール相談</a>mail consultation</li> </ul> </div> <div id="flash"> <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=5,0,0,0" width="227" height="27"> <param name="movie" value="text1.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <embed src="text1.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500px" height="27" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"></embed> </object> <p>this is under flash text</p> </div> </div> <div id="content_bottom"> <div id="left_content"> left content </div> <div id="right_content"> right content </div> </div> </p> <div id="footer1"> <ul> <li id="footer_list"><a href="#">サイトマップ</a></li> <li id="footer_list"><a href="#">å€‹äººæƒ…å ±ä¿è·æ–¹é‡</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="footer2"> <p>Copyright (C) 2006 kidugawadai-shika All Rights Reserved.<p> </div> </body> </html> Code (markup):
Your main issue is that you are mis-using id's. An ID can only be used ONCE per page. If you want to use it multiple times, it needs to be a .class. There's tons wrong with the markup and css because of this. Re-run the code through a validator. to achive your positioning, your best bet is to use negative margins. on the li a, margin: -30px 0 0 0; on the li, margin: 0 -30px -10px 0; that should do the trick once your classing issues are addressed. http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=ClassesVsIds