A page layout without tables?

[ffoeg]

I've always wondered, if tables are not supposed to be used for layout of web pages, what exactly am i supposed to use?

And, how exactly do you do the whole vertical alignment thing in XHTML? I've tried searching everywhere, but nowhere can give me an answer.

[Matt Probert]

A contencious subject. Some people, those who say don't use tables for layout, will argue you should use cascading style sheets (CSS). These have the advantage of being unintelligible to most people, and as such retain a certain air of elitism about them. They are also notoriously unreliable for layout, especially when readers adjust their font sizes. But then, I wuld say that, wouldn't I? I like simple tables for simple layouts!

Matt

[Wlauzon]

I have only been messing with CSS for a couple of months, but from what I see so far, tables, at least for us, are the best of the worst.

With so many browser quirks and non-standards, getting CSS tables to work can be very time consuming.

So for the time being, on some pages that need large tables we are using standarnd html tables but putting them on an include file so easily changed later.

Not the best solution perhaps, but I just don't have time to mess with getting CSS tables to work right in all browsers.

[Kufu]

For over a year now, I have only been using CSS layouts. I code them myself and keep it as simple as possible. They have huge advantages when it comes to SEO and reducing the file size. A page which may be 100 lines of code using tables can be easily reduced to 20 lines (save any text).

It take a few months to get used to working with DIVs and CSS exclusively, but once you get the hang of it, you'll never think of going back. We'll, except maybe when you want to pull your hair out trying to get something to line up. :)