Attempted that before, no success, I am pretty sure the problem lies with the known hasLayout issue with IE7 regarding disappearing content.
I was under the impression that giving something a layout would fix the problem, but in this case it seemed to be the opposite.
The way I understand giving something layout is like this
I may be mixing apples with oranges here though)
If I have a div with no position set it flows with the document and depending on elements around it and the size of the window, it can be in different locations. There is no x,y location SET for it.
If I have an element inside that div that I want to position absolutely at top:0 and left:0, that element
needs a reference point so it starts at it's parent looking for an ancestor that has a position(hasLayout?) that it can use as a reference.
It will go all the way up the hierarchy to the browser window if none of it's ancestors has a position, and that element would be in the upper left corner of the browser window, no matter where it's containing div is in the window.
To make the element's absolute position relative to it's containing div, you can set position:relative for the containing div without affecting how it flows with the document, but it sets a position reference for the element inside to use, now the absolutely positioned child of the div will be in the upper left corner of the div as apposed to the browser window.
I am not sure if hasLayout is the same thing I am talking about here in regards to giving the div a position via position:relative or not.
If you look at the hasLayout page I linked in my original post you will see that a div does not 'have layout' by default, but a table does. Again I do not know if the hasLayout issue and my position issue are one and the same.
One thing I will note is that when the page first opens, the div and contained elements are visible until you move the mouse, then they would disappear.
I also did tests with the img and button elements inside the div that is inside the TD by alternately putting position:relative on those elements and found that when any of those elements had a position rule they disappeared, while the elements without a position rule did not disappear.
Crazy stuff, maybe IE8 will be standards compliant and we can pass legislation to make it a capital offense to use any prior version of IE
