CSS Vs. Tables

[Dectala]

Hello,
I am very new to CSS (about a month of work) and I am trying to figure out why everyone finds CSS to be so superior than using a table when it comes to the layout of your web page. I have been using tables for as long as Ive been using HTML and I'm not against using CSS but I find it to not provide the results I like. Through the limited tutorials I've found They all mention that it is so superior but don't' really back it up. Anyone else I've asked just tells me it is and to learn it.

I can't just do that, I'd like to know why it's considered so great for layout. I absolutely love it for it's ability to modify the presentation of HTML code and I do like it's layout capabilities but I still find situations where a table just suits the job better.

I know this is a vague questions but I guess I'm just looking for someone to actually say "this is why CSS is better" instead of just telling me "that's just the way it is....get with the program"

[Jen]

There are some threads have discussed same topic as yours, please do search here :)

[papilindo701]

I don't see how anyone could possibly like table design vs a tableless with external css stylesheet even if you vaguely hear about it. A book called css anthology can greatly help.

[hostchecker]

I love CSS@ Lol

http://www.hostchecker.info/image9.jpg
http://www.hostchecker.info/image3.jpg

[d0gMa]

CSS are for style
xml for content
tables for tabulating data
xhtml for combining it all together

you can use tables but think about it this way, if you have many pages all using the same style of page you can either write

<table>
<td>
...
...
..
...
</table>

in every single page.... or you can write

<div id="box> content goes here </div>

and place the style in one .css file that is used on every page.


you cut down on server load, cut down on page loading times, and even more importantly, when it comes to changing something about your site, all you have to do is change the CSS file ONCE, and all your pages will change.... EASY!

[Borg]

It's also worth noting that web programs for the blind (the ones that read whats on the page aloud) tend to get stuck or misinterpret pages designed on tables where as if a page is written in xhtml and designed with css correctly they should have no problem with them at all. It may be a smaller percentage of the population but if you're doing work for large multi-national buisnesses the number of blind users may be quite high.

[zenworm]

d0gMa said it pretty much perfectly. That should be enough for anyone to understand the "why" of XHTML and CSS.

I think it's important also for people to realize that tables were NEVER meant to be used as the stylistic basis of web design. That's not what it existed for! I believe it was David Siegel in the late 90's that started the trend of "table-based" design.

The focus of any good web design should be creating semantic markup that is free of presentation, thus allowing complete visual control completely separate of the markup itself.

Dectala, I hope this helps you on the right path.

EDIT: I found David Siegel's article! This should offer the penultimate perspective on why table-based design is not a good idea. And YES, this article was written 11 years ago. http://www.xml.com/pub/a/w3j/s1.people.html

[andres]

Tables are just good if you use tabular data