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Kelly and Amelia, you're Godsends. I'm getting entirely overwhelmed and it will take me a bit to digest what you've said and to check out that link. Kelly, I think I understand what you're saying. That basically the "text table" (table 4) will OVERLAY the "photo table" (table 3), and the big images will appear top and bottom as sort of a layer "under" the top, text layer. Thinking Photoshoppy here.
This begs the question, though... what do I do about the actual auction images I will insert into the "text table" for each new auction? I've created spaces for them to fit among and between the heading titles Description, Payment, Shipping, etc.
If I use percentages, how do I know how large to make the images?
If I used fixed pixel values, what would you recommend? I COULD research this, but my brain cells are verging on meltdown at this point.
I know that I created my website for a small possible resolution of 800x600 even though mine (many others, too) is much higher than that.
If I assume 800 pixels wide as a minimum screen resolution, and have a few table/borders between the edges of that limit and my text/images, than would 500 be a good number for the inner table... and then 500 MINUS my cellpadding (divided in two, for each edge? If cellpadding is 50 is each "margin" 25? Or do 50 pixels get added to each edge? Still fuzzy on this!) should be the largest width of any images I would load into that inner, FOURTH table? These numbers, thus accommodating those with lower resolutions?
And, for now, the handheld viewers be dam*ed! 
I can only conquer and master one thing at a time!
I am in awe of you folks who know how to do this stuff. TEACH ME, oh Wise Ones!
Still feeling...
Apple Dumpling DesignsIt does not look easy by any sense of the imagination...I truly admire those of you who have the patience and stamina to sit in front of your computer for hours and hash through it. I'd have pulled all my hair out, screamed at anyone who ventured to breathe within my domain, eaten and gallon or two of icecream and probably tossed the computer out the nearest window.
Not to mentioned cried...
Canna Bear PaintThe beauty part about adding images to the third table in this situation is that it gives you some more room, so your images can be a bit bigger. If you want all of your images grouped together separate from all of your text, just keep adding them in the third table in their own <tr><td><img src="myimage.jpg"></td></tr> one after another all like that, then insert your table of text before or after all of your images with its own <tr><td><table blah blah blah></td></tr>.
If within your auction, however, you want your images and text interlaced (one image followed by text, second image followed by text, third image followed by text, and so on), then your third table could, technically, be a mix of images in their own rows <tr><td><img src="myimage.jpg"></td></tr> followed by a table of text in its own row <tr><td><table blah blah blah></td></tr>, followed by an image in its own row <tr><td></td></tr>, followed by a table of text in its own row... and so on.
The beauty and the horror of HTML is that there are many, many ways to accomplish something. What I'm describing to you isn't ideal, I don't really know the overall effect you're looking for but this fits in your format. And no matter how hard you work to make it perfect, you also have to remember that browsers all shows things just a little bit differently (or sometimes, A LOT differently). Your template could be perfection in one version of one browser, and skew in another version of the same browser or in another browser altogether. Compatibility is the greatest headache for web designers.
I agree that designing for 800 x 600 monitor setting is a good minimum size to work with. I think the place to start might be to figure out exactly how many pixels wide you like that innermost table. Just play with punching in numbers until it looks like it's the right width at 800 x 600. Possibly 400 or 500 pixels across, but I don't know how narrow you really want that text to be, so you'll have to eyeball it.
So yes, whichever table you ultimately put your images in... third table which is a little wider, fourth table mixed in with your narrow text, as yet to be determined nineteenth table, whatever... you just have to keep the width in mind. You will have a maximum width with your images that you can't exceed without distorting the sides of your tables. So if you have a set size of 500 for a table width and cellpadding at 20, then you know your images cannot exceed 460 pixels wide in that particular table. The same applies for percentages, so if your table is set at 65% of an 800 pixel wide screen, that's like saying that your table is 520 pixels wide. With cellpadding at 20 in that particular table, your image width cannot exceed 480 pixels.
Whew 
Kelly
Jellybelly BearsHi Shelli. Glad you're learning more about web sites:) It only gets easier and more fun as you go along so hang in there :hug: I just woke up so haven't read through all of this post, but have you got a split frame in your software? Then you can pin point where exactly each part of your design view of your web is situated in html. this helped me so much to learn and delete all the unneccessary html, re-adjust etc.
will read this through when my mind is feeling better, but i'm sure that there are much more advanced html'ers that me!
xx sarah
fribbles, ltd.Shel, what you have pasted is merely the Buy/Sell/My eBay/Community etc. buttons---
Do you have a free minute? I can call you with a calling card and walk you through some simplistic decoding of each item...
Who is your favorite lampwork artist?? Share!!
Amelia
Canna Bear PaintSomething else to play with if cellpadding is driving you nuts is to keep everything set to zero. There are other ways to pad out your images and text from the sides of the table surrounding it. With that narrow fourth table, we're moving the text away from the outer blue walls without ever touching cellpadding. If you placed an image in that third table and wanted to move it away from the blue walls as well (without putting it in the fourth narrower table), look up "hspace" for images. It adds horizontal padding around an image. (vspace is its partner in crime to add vertical padding.) Just like with cellpadding though, you need to calculate this value into your overall maximum allowed width! So your image might be:
<img src="myimage.jpg" width="400" hspace="20">
That would push the image 20 pixels away from everything that surrounds it horizontally. Just one more option!
I hope some of this gobbledygook helped! Maybe someone else can come along with other potential solutions, or just explain it better than I can. Please don't hesitate to ask about anything.
The pathetic thing is, the page I'm currently working on for my site overhaul really does have nineteen tables. It's pathetic because I should be using more advanced formatting solutions, but all of those books are packed... so I stick with basic old nested tables because I know it by heart and hand-code everything. Ah well!
Best wishes,
Kelly
Canna Bear PaintWent back through these and saw I'd missed a few things 
Kelly, I think I understand what you're saying. That basically the "text table" (table 4) will OVERLAY the "photo table" (table 3), and the big images will appear top and bottom as sort of a layer "under" the top, text layer. Thinking Photoshoppy here.
Be careful with using layers as an analogy, the two really aren't alike. The fourth table is just one more element in the third table, I worry that using layers as an example implies that it overrides or overlays any other content in the third table, as it does not. The fourth table is really inside the third table. But it is no more important an element in that third table than anything else that may be in the third table. You could have paragraphs of other text and images scattered all throughout that third table, however you want it. Your third table could have multiple rows with one cell per row (this is like the example code I posted). It could have multiple rows with multiple cells per row. It could have one row with one cell for absolutely everything, where your table just happens to make an appearance in a big block of blahblahblah text, for example.
If cellpadding is 50 is each "margin" 25? Or do 50 pixels get added to each edge? Still fuzzy on this!)
If cellpadding is 50 then both the left and right side of the cell EACH add 50, for a total of 100 added pixels within the cell.
I think my brain is fried now, too
Cheers,
Kelly
Shelli,
I can relate to your frustration with HTML ... I bought a book "Learn HTML 4 in a Weekend" ...got through the Friday stuff and started Saturday, but ran out of time to complete. If I can stick to it, I might be able to use HTML to "tweak" my website.
Oh well, just another project to table for future learning. Good luck, I know you will accomplish your task at hand.
Hugs,
Wanda
Shel, what you have pasted is merely the Buy/Sell/My eBay/Community etc. buttons---
Yeah, I know that... I just grabbed something from her auction template because I had been studying it when I was typing earlier. I think the very bottom is the beginning of her JavaScript so I figured better credit the right person, just in case!
Who is your favorite lampwork artist??
Not my ONE favorite, but ONE OF my favorites. Don't even remember her name, but it's Bluff Road Glass. I aspire to sell my sets of 20 beads for $1200 someday, too... not!
Baird'sBears
My brain hurts
Whoooaaaaa ... scarey talk in here ... *hides under computer desk* 
