How to fix top/bottom-padding problems with BLOCKQUOTE.TIP/NOTE elements (MSIE)?

[Jason Massey]

freebsd-doc at freebsd.org

Masters,

I am relatively new to participating on FreeBSD lists so please forgive any
beginner's missteps I may commit. I have tried to familiarize myself by
reading various pieces of (excellent) documentation.

[Background]

I have downloaded and built the FreeBSD Handbook on an 8.2-STABLE machine
to familiarize myself with the FDP as I would like to one day contribute. I
was able to get everything built successfully thanks to, well, *the great
documentation by the FDP.*


[Problem]

When I use a Chrome browser on a Windows XP machine to connect to the
Apache server running on the 8.2-STABLE machine to read the Handbook I
built, all displays perfectly.

When I use Microsoft Internet Explorer, however, there is a display problem
with the admonition elements BLOCKQUOTE.TIP and BLOCKQUOTE.NOTE; namely, it
appears to me that the top and bottom padding of tips and notes is greatly
reduced or perhaps even eliminated.

The _curious_ thing to me, however, is that I do not experience this issue
when I read the "official" Handbook at FreeBSD.org. That is, MSIE displays
just as well as Chrome. What is confusing me is that I've built up my
version of the Handbook from FDP source with no modifications -- why should
mine display any differently?


[Questions]

* Does the FreeBSD.org web-server do something automatic "behind the
scenes" to detect a MSIE browser so as to correct the symptoms I've
described?

* Is this the Microsoft "box model bug"?  (I'm a veteran C programmer,
Unix/Oracle admin, computer scientist, but I'm relatively new to styling
content with CSS.)

* How does the FDP fixing this MSIE padding problem with the elements I
reference above?


[Research I've done]

I have manually compared the HTML source code from my Handbook with that of
the official FreeBSD.org site: no differences.

I have `wget'-ed the docbook.css from FreeBSD.org to ensure my styling is
the same as the official site.

I have searched this list for "box model" and "padding" and did not locate
discussions on the matter.


Thank you for any kind insight you can provide. I hope to learn the ways
and contribute one happy day.

Respectfully,

Jason Massey
(Indianapolis, IN / USA)

-- 
*Please update your address books:* set my email address to *
Jason at JanixSoft.com* as I will be migrating away from all other accounts.