21 Untitled

Uh-oh. It’s the fuzz.

posted at 05:34 pm on February 6, 2007 by Mike Hairston

22 Deja Vu

How about one with a header and footer ;).

[url=“http://www.cssplay.co.uk/layouts/3cols.html”]Cssplay example[/url]

posted at 06:55 pm on February 6, 2007 by Blake Ramick

23 It's the fuzz

To be entirely accurate, the web accessibility content guidelines do not preclude using tables.

At priority 2, it says “5.3 Do not use tables for layout unless the table makes sense when linearized. Otherwise, if the table does not make sense, provide an alternative equivalent (which may be a linearized version).” and “5.4 If a table is used for layout, do not use any structural markup for the purpose of visual formatting.”

Not that I’d recommend using a table to lay out the page, but it’s good to be accurate.

posted at 07:17 pm on February 6, 2007 by Bruce Lawson

25 Deja Vu :-)

I use this technique for a long time, thanks to:

http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/skidoo_redux/index.html

posted at 07:24 pm on February 6, 2007 by Martin Heiden

26 sigh

If you can avoid using tables for layout, fine. but if the alternative is a 10k stylesheet full of hacks, then just use a frickin table, i’m pretty sure God(w3c) isn’t gonna come down from heaven and stike you dead if you do.

posted at 07:32 pm on February 6, 2007 by Andre Kemner

27 KISS

Thanks for the tip! It provides an elegant and flexible solution for many common layouts.

Two or three columnd based layouts are so common that a single element containing the various columns (essentially the gutters on either side of the road) is the right approach. Using negative margins sounds a bit weird but, if I think back to my school exercise books, this is exactly what margins are for.

As for the age-old table vs. non-table layout: go with what works for you and what your comfortable with. Personally I don’t think tables (row-based) should be used for laying out a page but there may be situations where they provide the best solution. I don’t think anyone would say CSS is perfect yet and the browsers certainly aren’t.

posted at 08:11 pm on February 6, 2007 by Charlie Clark

28 Time for the next step

The only progress I’ve seen so far since 2001 is that box of tricks to get CSS to create obvious layouts has become more “sophisticated” and that 7 different solutions to the same problems are offered.

It is time the CSS spec AND the browsers do move on. I’ve a hard time defending this kind of trickey against the why-use-css-when-a-table-works-perfectly crowd and to be honest I’m pretty tired of defending (for all the right reasons like accessibility and the ability to rework the layout without touching mark-up).

Now, if ALA could produce another flaming pamphlet like the ‘to hell with bad browsers’ article, but this time directed against the W3C, browser makers and short sighted managers at the same time, maybe we get to use CSS3-like simple grid commands that will work everywhere the same way.

It’s rediculous that so much effort and money is spent on working around something that should have been solved in 2002 and would so much benefit everyone: webdesigners, web design tool makers, web browser makers and users.

posted at 10:32 pm on February 6, 2007 by Martijn ten Napel

29 Just use a HTML table.

What is so wrong with using a table to layout 3 columns? Someone please answer this. It aint worth it till CSS gets its act together and browsers agree on it 5-10 years from now.
Advantages of using table…no hacks, scales, no crazy css tricks for each and every browser, way less time and energy spent developing it, it just plain works…you css people are like jesus freaks and obviously never designed web pages for large scale websites and paying clients. In theory it sounds pretty, but it just is not practical to use pure CSS for a whole public facing website.

posted at 12:44 am on February 7, 2007 by Htmler Tabler

30 Know When To Use Tables

This is a perfect example of when IT IS OK TO USE TABLES. Would you seriously trust this mess of hacks and negative margins over a simple HTML table? There’s no disadvantage, and you KNOW it’s going to work.

posted at 01:00 am on February 7, 2007 by Dave M