CSS or Tables??

[glenmac]

I've heard a lot of discussion in this forum about the pros and cons of CSS over Tables when designing a web page. Well try this link out and see if you still think tables are better for design purposes. My vote is for CSS definitly. There's not a table in use anywhere on this site.

http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/

I'm interested in what you people think. There's way cool tutorials here to.

Glen

http://www.lantzvillecomputers.ca

 

[Vragabond]

Well, basically I have accepted and embraced the new standard of using CSS positioning instead of tables. I think it usually gives more control over your content. Still, the biggest problem is browser compatibilty, mostly because IE has limited (and often erroneous support of CSS). This means you need to make a choice of going with standards (and make it look good in Mozilla, NN, Opera and Safari) or going with the masses (and make it look good in IE). Or employ hacks and convince IE to display things properly. But that is double coding. That is the only con that I see.

 

[ChrisHunt]

I'm not doctrinaire about it - I use both layout tables and CSS, depending on what works best for the task in hand. Sure, with a pure CSS approach I could have umpteen different looks from the same HTML a la Zen Garden, but would I really want to?


-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[WartookMan]

Dunno about you, but in IE6 I get an aweful rollover problem in the top-right of the page for:

http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/

...in particular rolling over the "latest projects" section, and worse still the banner. Seems to be fine in IE5.01 SP2.

Not quite sure what is going on there, and (IMHO) while there are too many problems with browser compatibility / support of pure CSS designs (this is one example) - "Frankly my dear, I don't give a ...". ;-)

Pete.


Web Developer / CMS (Aptrix / LWWCM) Consultant
w:

http://www.lclimited.co.uk/

e: Pete.Raleigh(at)lclimited.co.uk

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Strange - the rollovers look fine for me in IE6... maybe it's one of those intermittent glitches?

Dan

 

[WartookMan]

Might be a service pack / patch thingy:
"...
Version 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633
Cipher Strength: 128-bit
Product ID:55274-640-1498411-23953
Update Versions:; SP1; Q331906; Q818529; Q828750;
Q330994; Q824145; Q822925;
..."

Pete.


Web Developer / CMS (Aptrix / LWWCM) Consultant
w:

http://www.lclimited.co.uk/

e: Pete.Raleigh(at)lclimited.co.uk

 

[ecobb]

I see it too, Pete. My config is almost like yours, but not quite.
"...
Version 6.0.2800.1106
Cipher Strength: 128-bit
Update Versions:; SP1; Q828750; Q824145; Q330994;
..."



Hope This Helps!

Ecobb

"Alright Brain, you don't like me, and I don't like you. But lets just do this, and I can get back to killing you with beer." - Homer Simpson

 

[WartookMan]

Hmmm... perhaps in fixing one problem (with patches Q828750, Q824145 and Q330994 - the first two are for IE, the last is for Outlook Express), Microsoft have introduced others. I tell ya, people just don't seem to test things anymore like they used to (who am I kidding - testing? What's all that about ).

Pete.


Web Developer / CMS (Aptrix / LWWCM) Consultant
w:

http://www.lclimited.co.uk/

e: Pete.Raleigh(at)lclimited.co.uk

 

[nevets2001uk]

I recently jumped onto the CSS bandwagon having only used it before to add hover effects on my links. Man, was I missing out?!!

I'm working on a new development between ASP.NET, XHTML and CSS and it's making my life much easier. I'm basically teaching myself as I go and although I've had some hurdles its coming along nicely. The main thing which I'm loving is being able to have different skins and layouts just by loading different CSS files and Image Paths. None of my pages use tables at all now except on my forms for the labels and textboxes!

I've yet to reach any major IE constraints but I'm sure I will as I get more details pages. My only problems are with advanced ASP.NET controls such as TabStrip and Calendar as I've yet to work out how to completely control their appearance but in general it's all good.

If you haven't tried using CSS for page layouts yet I advice it. I'm certainly going to use it on all my site from now on. It only took a few tutorials before I got the hang of it.

Steve Gordon

http://www.celebrity-hunt.co.uk

 

[M0nkeeFu]

Using Mezzoblue is a bit of a tricky example. Dave Shea is a big Web Standards advocte, member of the Web Standards Project and that his personal page.

Its a blog type site with various bit of information he like to comment on. I get the issue with the nav links at the top right with Opera too.

If it were a commercial site, I imagine he'd be a bit more sure about it working across the platforms a bit more.

CSS is deffinately the way to go, Dave's other site

http://www.csszengarden.com

is an amazing example of what can be done with the same HTML, just different style sheets and images.

Having said that, in many commerical cases, it makes sense to use some tables too, to try and keep hold of as many customers as practically possible. Becoming more common is a kind of hybrid page. There may be one or 2 fairly simple tables for the overall page structure, while the rest is all done with CSS, including some other, smaller bits of positioning.

It doesn't have to be an all or nothing situation.