Tables on Web pages

[kylenano]

As it is long overdue for updating, I have a web site I'm keeping quiet about. But I would like to do something with it!

One problem I'm having is tables, which I'm using for formatting. If I use something like Mozilla, I get what this site: Web Editors Reviews: Review of Mozilla Composer (http://www.thesitewizard.com/reviews/mozillacomposer.shtml) calls 'Code Bloat', ['font' in every line] but if I use Bluefish, I can't see the table structure for the code without constantly going back and forth with previews, which is very time consuming. (As I found when I first wrote web pages on Notepad, about ten years ago.)

Is there is a better way of formatting than tables which will work in different browsers? I'm thinking of using cascading style sheets. We have Mozilla Firefox, Konqueror and Opera. No Internet Explorer - well not a recent one, and using that involves putting files on floppy discs... We're using Linux - I've got a Red Hat logo on the bottom left of my screen.

The whole point of my web site is to provide information, not fancy graphics so I want to keep it as simple and accessible as possible. And for it to work in different browsers. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.

[Argos]

Cascading SS is the way to go. Another interesting approach would be to use XLS/XML. Also, the "dernier cri" of webdesign is to avoid clogging the site with graphics. Use a single eye-catching graphic. Good luck.

[NEOWatcher]

Cascading SS is the way to go.
snip.
Good luck.
Ditto; Also, always review your html. I've never seen a composer do too well at applying any kind of formatting for anything thats a little more complex.

[ToSeek]

Tables shouldn't be used for formatting anything but tabular data. CSS is the way to go.

[Jeff Root]

I have a similar problem. I want to put together some pages
with images aligned at least roughly with text. I've been
assembling everything in tables by hand in a text editor,
using trial and error. It is difficult to get everything to
fit, and nobody else could possibly maintain the pages.

Here's the page that is farthest along:

http://www.freemars.org/jeff2/scales/number/

Any suggestions?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[NEOWatcher]

snip
and nobody else could possibly maintain the pages.

Don't let that bother you. Programmers have lots of different styles, and even though something may be written with accepted practices, it might as well be written in a foriegn language. Programming is more of an art than it is science.

[sidmel]

I do everything in a text editor. I have yet to find an html editor that doesn't try to add it's own codex, or it just doesn't have certain new coding standards, or it decides on it's own arbitrary interpretation of a layout idea.

As far as aligning text and images, something that helped me out until I got the hang of it was including a border with every table so I could so how everything is working together. I.E. border=”1”. Then take out all the borders once you get a layout you like. Something that might help your images not roll together like they are now would be to insert the following code: <table cellpadding=”0” cellspacing=”1” border=”0” style=”border:1px solid white”>. That should provide separation. You might also change the table background color by putting a lighter blue shade in to set them apart. i.e. style=”background-color: blue something”.

[sidmel]

Jeff Root

Here is something I threw together real quick that has a sample of the coding I was talking about. It uses a css style sheet plus a few style commands in the text to give examples of both. It might simplify your coding a bit.

http://www.handyblues.org/test/index.html

I can send you a zipped copy of the layouts if you like.