tables vs div & span?

slow moving minds ahead...

[thomask]

I've done some reading, and I feel like I am missing 'the obvious' for some reason..

From what I came to understand, div and span could replace tables. Is my assumption and understanding incorrect?

Forgive me if this seems like a rather stupid question, however the only stupid question is the one never asked.. ;)

Thanks,

ThomasK
Peace.. and html to you.

[grillonweb]

<table>-based layouts can (and should) be replaced by divs and advanced use of css. The reason is this : with css, it is possible to keep your HTML free of layout and graphical specifications, keeping it all in a css style sheet.
The clarity and maintainability in the code obtained this way is incredible, you get separation of content(HTML) and layout(CSS); best place to discover this is the css zen garden :

[csszengarden.com...]

[thomask]

Thank you, I thought I was loosing my mind...

I've begun to play with css & html.. I guess xhtml?

Now I just gotta get a 17" monitor that will let me develop at 1024x768 minimum... (and not 800x600)

Question.. is it a big deal going from one resolution to another? If it is, is there a way to force the browser to view in the "1" config til others can be 'adjusted'?

Many Many Many many... ... thanks... ;)

ThomasK

[grillonweb]

You mean you'd like to force the browser window to a certain size? If it's the case, there's no elegant way to do so. In fact, it's important for web page designs to be as flexible as possible.

A page should at least look nice on common resolutions, and should still look nice after reasonable browser window resizing. I understand this might be a challenge on a tiny screen, if you can't properly test for 1024x768 resolutions, but still I don't recommend you waste too much time trying to come up with some plan to get browser windows to be stuck at a certain size, unless its absolutely needed for some specific graphical purposes.

If its absolutely needed though, by opening a window with the Javascript openWindow() function, you can get it to have a fixed size.

[mincklerstraat]

The firefox browser (mozilla.org) is a 'must' for all webdesigners, and you can get an extension for it called the web developers' extension which allows you to resize your windows to a few common browser size windows. Great for quickly checking how your pages will look in different resolutions / window sizes. Don't worry too much about the really big ones, people with huge screens like me usually don't open the browser window up to the whole screen.

[dcrombie]

The best trick I've seen for this is to set up a 'Desktop/Wallpaper' image for your computer that displays boxes at the standard screen resolutions (640x480, 800x600, ...). When you want to see how your site's going to work at a lower resolution, just shrink the browser window to match the relevant box.

Hope that makes sense ;)

[thomask]

Uhm, suuure.. I follow ;)

really I do :LOL:

Now if I could figure out how to force the border-left and border-right to a fixed size... (much like a table td has a uniform size all the way down...)

ThomasK