CSS Divs or Tables?

Question

I'm bad. I use both. Can't kiss my tables goodbye.

Answer 1

while you can approximate the table layout with divs, and spans even down to the column alignment! it hardly seems worth it.

If it really is a tabular layout, tables are cool, if you are just trying to stick extra space around things, it's less cool.

You are bad!

Answer 2

I never learned to use Tables for layout. I was taught CSS Divs for layout and Tables for tabular data. I can't imagine using tables for layout. I understand that's all we had, but now it's time to make the switch. You'll be glad you did. So, take CSS into the final frontier. Or, to infinity and beyond. Or, whatever. Now I just need to figure out JavaScript and PHP and I'll be set.

Answer 3

Tables have their place - when you need a table of information. Like if you are listing 5 locations with their addresses and phone numbers the way you would in a database. But that table should be nested in a div. That way your code is cleaner for search engines and easier to alter in the future.

Answer 4

Some web designers make a fetish of avoiding tables for layouts. Have a look at the CSS for this page: http://alistapart.com/d/holygrail/example_3.html . They have resorted to silliness like "margin-bottom: -10000px;", just to produce a simple three equal columns with header and footer. And up until IE7, it used to work!

On the other hand, have a look at the coding to produce this relatively simple layout using tables: http://www.netobjects.com/html/fusion_10.html . This is the sort of layout that gives tables a bad name, and these folks will sell you a software tool to do it with. When you find yourself writing "colspan=14" it's time to stop and ask yourself if there isn't a better way.