Using Tables vs. CSS Question

[onthis]

Beginner to web page building. As I learn I read you can use html tables for page layout, as well as, CSS and I am wondering what are the Pros and Cons. I understand that html tables was originally used for data columns. Also what is the current HTML ver?
Thanks

 

[shockie]

i think that html is at 4.01, although xhtml is the way to go now in conjunction with css. the main advantages i see of css over html are: faster loading; faster modifying/creating/fixing and; better search engine rankings.

why tables for layout is stupid: http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/

 

[sOliver]

Beginner to web page building. As I learn I read you can use html tables for page layout, as well as, CSS and I am wondering what are the Pros and Cons. I understand that html tables was originally used for data columns. Also what is the current HTML ver?
Thanks

a html layout is relative to the seize of your browser but in css it can have a fixed size ( you can center it with the command <div align=center></div> btw;
put that around your main site and it will always be in the middle of your browser window )

css = cascading, means you can define a style in 3 ways
1. in an external file e.g. stylesheet.css
2. in the head of your html page
3. in addition to a html tag <p style="width:200px"></p>

 

[onthis]

Coming along slowly

Thanks for the links and info. I am trying to learn some basic CSS. I seem to prefer the external style as it appears most flexible for creating multiple sites, using at least some of the same style sheets and it does make sense.
Got side tracked and stuck setting up a personal slackware web/file server. lol Everything I try to do is such a huge learning project!

 

[smub]

technically no differnece but css is just easier to modify ... tables make a big mess

both can be made seo friendly so neither have an edge over the other. Css does tend to load a bit faster than tables.

 

[Kate]

Some interesting links:
http://www.gtalbot.org/NvuSection/NvuWebDesignTips/TableVsCSSDesign.html
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/journey/

 

[cancer10]

People who says that a tabular css layout is much lesser code or is less in size (kb) - Can they prove that a 500 row HTML table consumes more disk space then a 500 row css tabular layout?

 

[Kate]

People who says that a tabular css layout is much lesser code or is less in size (kb) - Can they prove that a 500 row HTML table consumes more disk space then a 500 row css tabular layout?

You can just use <br /> tags for rows.
Another thing to consider: a pure CSS layout loads faster than a table structure, it takes more time to parse and render tables on the screen and nested tables do not help