Preserved Topic: CSS questions

I'm developing my first CSS only pages and need some help.
As you can see from http://members.cybernetisp.net/davidh/main.html
some parts of the divs don't collapse when using percentages for width.
Is the relative positioning idea supposed to handle this or am I way off track?
I'm really at the beginning here and would appreciate any comments on how
to make CSS pages liquid, without ruining the content. There isn't much content
yet but there will be and I want it to look right...
(stylesheet is here: http://members.cybernetisp.net/davidh/mainstyle.css)

Allewyn: I'm not sure the problem is due to the types of positioning used (although it is a confusing mix of absolute and relative - I'd try and get rid of as much of the positioning as pos. as it isn't required and may cause you problems). I suspect it is more to do with z-indices and the fact that the left and both far right columns are already at their collapsible limit (in 800x600 anyway) - it was the 47px of right padding on the left column which had me fooled for a while!! I'd try to do this with floating rather than positioning and mobrul's page down in site reviews, which you've seen, is a good example of what can be done. Then again it works fine like this and getting floating working well can take a bit of tweaking so its your call.

More information if you want it.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Ok, then instead of using relative or absolute positioning, I should use float? Kinda new to this
involved a level of CSS so didn't think of it. I can float both columns to the right and the center box?
That's all I really need...for now. I'll look into the float idea. Thanks!

Ok, I looked at mobrul's page, as you suggested, and was surprised to see relative positioning, percentage widths, and float for the same object. It appears my mitake is in defining too closely the right or left location of my objects.
One question: how do the objects avoid overlap if I don't tell them where the line is? Still puzzled about that.

Allewyn: They don't overlap as the float keeps things on the same level and so it floats the element along so it is against the next element. Poorly explained by me but have a look at these resources for a better explanantion:
www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/visuren.html#floats
http://glish.com/css

Basically the resource Glish has and links to are the best for this kind of layout.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Ok, will do! Thanks Emps