Positioning elements with tables

[MikeMCSD]

As I analyze web pages I notice that Tables are used for positioning, but vary from page to page in the way they are used.
Ex. 1 Is it better to use 100% (for the main table, like this page) for the width of the page instead of a fixed length like 820? I prefer 100% because it will expand to fit in the browser.

Ex. 2 How do you know to use another <table> instead of another <tr><td>? Is it a matter of style? There are some pages that use a lot of tables inside other tables. Is there such a thing as too many tables? You also have the situation where you have a table, then a <td> and a table inside that cell, then another table, <td> . . . etc. Some of these pages nest the <table> and <td> tags so deep that it is sometimes hard to find the beginning and ending tags.

Are they any basic rules that are considered good practice when using tables?
I would be interested in anyone’s comments.

 

[ChrisHunt]

Well, the orthodox answer would be that you shouldn't use tables AT ALL for layout - but use CSS positioning instead. Plenty of articles on this, try

http://www.alistapart.com/

for starters.

However, here in the real world, many people - myself included - still find tables convenient for some layout tasks. To address your points in detail:

Ex 1. Whatever suits you. The thinking behind fixed-width sites is (in part) that text is easier to read if you limit how wide the column can be. Personally I prefer a &quot;liquid&quot; layout for my sites.

Ex 2. My advice would be to go for as few (levels of) tables as possible - it's easier for you to maintain and easier for the browser to render. In the bad old pre-css days there were lots of things we used tables for that we can do more easily now - want to put a block on your page with a different background colour? Don't use a one-cell table, just use a <div> with some different styling. You can also use css to vary the border and backgrounds on a per-cell basis, rather than resorting to a nested table.

-- Chris Hunt

http://www.extracon.com

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

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