Creating a table that contains a list

[amythepoet]

Hi,

I would like to streamline my homepage by placing a table on it which contains a list.

I"m just wondering if this is a good idea.

I"ve read a lot about tables and would like some direction.

Thank you for your advice.

I would like the table to have 3 colums and be about 6 rows down

I"m just thinking this would be easier for the user to navigate.

Any thoughts?

[Marcia]

Big, big tables can slow down load times, depending on file sizes. I read a long time ago that it may be best, in some cases, to use a few smaller tables.

[amythepoet]

Oh this would be a small table, only containing three columns and about 10 rows,

I also wanted to add a header too and do not know how to do that.

[amythepoet]

If I did make a table, can I use javascript to do so or would you suggest just making a regular table?

[WhiteWebServices]

A lot of the anti-table advice is aimed at the use of tables for page layout (e.g. by creating a three-column table and putting a navigation sidebar in the first column, an article in the second column, and adverts in the third column).

This is frowned on because tables are meant for tabular data. Putting non-tabular data into them is an abuse of the <table> tag; it implies that what's in there is something that it isn't (which has negative accessibility implications).

Tables are not always evil. If you want to put tabular data on your site, go ahead and put it in a table.

If, on the other hand, you want to put a list on your site, there are various tags for lists (e.g. <ul> for unorderded or bulleted lists, or <ol> for ordered or numbered lists).

It's perfectly possible to get a three-column layout where each column contains a list, without using a table for layout. Based on the limited information you've given, this might be the best way of doing what you want to do.

[amythepoet]

Well, I have made my table and I think it looks pretty good.

Originally I had a list using the tags you just mentioned but I thought for web usablity it would be better to put the items in my list in a table.

I hope that is ok

[amythepoet]

Dear Whitewebservices,

My table only contains two columns and perhaps I should change it back to an ordered list.

I just was having problems making two columns that contained an ordered list.

I think from what you are saying that that is the preferable way.

I would need some help!