createErrorMsg - 2:44 pm on Sep 26, 2005 (gmt 0)

I'm a hugely avid supporter of standards based web design, and will fight tooth and nail with anyone who questions the benefits of using CSS-P over tables-based design.

However, it's important to bear in mind that tables do have their uses. One of the central ideas behind CSS-P is using elements for the purposes to which they were intended. Tables are intended to display tabular data, that is, data which is better understood when presented in columns and rows.

So the question is: does an image gallery count as tabular data, or is it more like a list? That answer probably depends on the application, as I can think of gallery set-ups that would match either description.

Point being, consider the possibility that using a table to display the image thumbnails may actually be the semantically correct approach, and if so, there's nothing wrong with placing a table in the layout to hold those images.

If, however, you think that a list format is more fitting, my adivce is to make ample but correct use of the float property. This will be far easier if you can standardize the size of the thumbnails, even if this means nesting each thumbnail in a standard-sized box, which is then floated. FLoats used in this way will work beautifully UNLESS the floated elements are different sizes, in which case so many funky things will happen you'll curse the day stylesheets were invented.

cEM