sitesupport — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:31:20 +0000

I started out using tables with my first websites, it was a mess to edit and divs are MUCH easier.

webwiz — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:17:34 +0000

The only reason I have found to justify the use of tables is IE's lack of CSS support. If you could use table display properties with IE, as you can in modern browsers, tables would no longer be needed.

My first web class taught tables, and I found them tedious to code and unintuitive. With CSS, I first get the HTML structured right, using heading tags for headings, paragraph tags for paragraphs, and, well, table tags for tables. Only then do I "dress up" the pages with styles.

I think this has several advantages:

1. HTML is meaningful to all visitors, including Google or very old browsers, even without CSS

2. Adding a print style is real easy

3. Changes to appearance mean changing a single style sheet to affect the whole site

4. Floats drop - table cells do not

To explain the last: In my first web class, one exercise meant putting two boxes side by side at the bottom of the page. Using a table and a narrow window, the boxes squished together in very ugly fashion. Switching to floats, the floated boxes moved to one above the other when narrowed, preserving the "looks" of the two boxes.

anuhya2005 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:20:38 +0000

to my knowledge divs are far better than table structure and loading is faster than tables

Megan — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:20:54 +0000

Here's another topic with more information:

http://www.webmaster-forums.net/showthread.php?t=37792

CSS layouts have been "in" since about 2002. That's when I switched, and I certainly wasn't the first to do so. This is much more than just a trend - it's a move to more correct use of HTML and proper document structure. See the link above for more info.

demonhale — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:19:13 +0000

AveSatani_666;223068 wrote: oic... thanks brady.k

but some tells that div's also help your page to load a little faster?

Technically no, but divs have more design related parameters that tables don't have, so a purely table based layout is a lot bulkier than a div based layout. Since table properties in the html requires more parameters, and sometimes include the tr and td codes... While a div can use a single id or class and all its properties can be stored in a separate css file.

All in all, a table based layout, file-size-wise is a lot bulkier to an equivalent div or css based layout...

Check the archive as this topic has been discussed before, i think it's titled Tables vs. CSS ...

AveSatani_666 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:09:52 +0000

ah... i don't believe that too, because i always use tables and more table on my websites...

and still, some company here are looking for those who build websites table less, i don't know what they want... lol

brady.k — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:02:50 +0000

Uh... I don't believe so, no.

AveSatani_666 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:55:15 +0000

oic... thanks brady.k

but some tells that div's also help your page to load a little faster?

brady.k — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 05:48:58 +0000

div's are the way to organize things visually, as per the recent standards by W3C.

Tables used to be used to organize how your site looked, as well as for "tabular data display", but now it's only typically accepted for that data display.

Div's are easy to use, once you understand how they work, but they take a little getting used to. I remember first using them would take me hours to figure out a site's layout... now I can wireframe an entire site in minutes.

All that being said, no one is stopping you from using tables... but you should avoid them unless necessary.