column widths in oscommerce loaded v5

[cforscutt]

I'm reasonably new to osCommerce and am running the latest loaded version 5 patched. One thing that has me stumped is column widths and I was wondering if some kind (bright) soul out there might be able to help. I would like the left column to be 175 pixels wide and the right 150, but cannot consistently achieve this. I would normally have edited the line "define('BOX_WIDTH', 125)" in the application_top.php file but this isn't present. So I have added this line and it makes both columns the same width which is no good. I have also tried editing the table widths in default.php and defining the box_width in column_right.php and column_left.php both to no avail. Any light that can be shed on this matter would be gratefully appreciated, my test site is on-line at www.cosyfeetshop.com/catalog/ as you can see having defined the box_width in application_top.php both columns are 150 pixels wide however I notice on the product_info pages and also product_reviews_info pages the right column seems to have a mind of its own I cant see where its getting its width from even once defined by me it makes no difference?? What is the best way to define a width for the left column and a separate width for the right column that is consistent throughout each page in a site?Any ideas?

[mattb]

You could just put a 1px high by however many px wide gif in catalog/includes/column_left.php & column_right.php

Probably not the RIGHT way to do it - but it works!

[acemang]

I had the same problem cforscutt. Let me tell you what I did.
I created two:
define ('BOX_WIDTH_LEFT', 175)
define ('BOX_WIDTH_RIGHT', 150)
save this in application_top.php
go to all *.php you want to change (usualy in catalog folder)
in the left table just put
<table width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH_LEFT; ?>" >
in the right table change to this
<table width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH_RIGHT; ?>" >

p.s. dont know if its good idea to have the same buttons that www.play.com uses in the same exact place.

[doug]

This and other related things drove me nuts originally as far as I am concerned the base site layout should be externally managed not on every page! Then again often good and flexible design can have its downsides too like performance and individual flexibility, howeve in osC's case this would be a good thing.