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Help with tables


supermerc

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Didn't I already answer this?

 

<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled</title>
<style type="text/css">
body,td {
color:#000;
background-color:#fff;
font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:11px;
}	
</style>
</head>

<body>
<table style="border:1px solid #c00;" width="90%" align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
       <td valign="top">Username</td>
       <td valign="top" align="right">whatever<br/>whatever else</td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td width="50%" valign="top">
   <table>
<tr>
       <td>Profile pic here</td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td>Top 5 art</td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td>Top 5 friends</td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
   
   </td>
       <td width="50%" valign="top">
   <table>
<tr>
       <td>Description</td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td>blah blah blah</td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td>Something else</td>
</tr>
<tr>
       <td>blah blah blah and more blah blah blah</td>
</tr>
</table>
   
   </td>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</html>

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eeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccchhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

 

tables for layout sucks backside big styleeeeeeeee...

 

TABLES are for TABULAR DATA and nothing else!!! (oh and getting yout html e-mails to work on email clients and web based ones - but that is something the industry needs to fix - I won't bend over backwards for them so-and-so's)

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Actually, I'll disagree.

 

Tables are for ... tables. The profile is tabular data so logically (and semantically) it should be in a table no an artificial construct of positionned or floated divs.

 

If you take a moment and check the W3C spec for tables, you'll find there are a zillion attributes for the simple html table - all designed to enhance the data display and make it rational both for sighted users and text readers.  Those tags are there for a reason.

 

What tables are NOT for is information display, i.e. normal web pages, which is where logically (and semantically) CSS markup is the sensible choice.

 

And to answer "what's tabular data" - a bus schedule; an address book; the elemental periodic table; etc., etc.

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Hi Andy,

 

Me and thee have a differing view on what is good web development...

 

We've doen the standards route and all that so lets not go in circles.

 

The one thing I will say is that for the layout depicted would require a sizeable amount html to produce in table format.  Using divs and styling would (as in virtually every situation I have encountered) vastly reduce the amount of code required.

 

The next issue is site maintenance you must surely agree that when tables go wrong it can get extremely messy.  Frustration sets in as time ticks by and the 'fault' is still not fixed.  Going down a tableless route for this site would significantly reduce the potential for crapness appearing on screen...

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Hi Andy,

 

Me and thee have a differing view on what is good web development...

 

Not so. We both agree that tables for page layout purposes is crap and that CSS is how layout should be done since it offers a significant semantic advantage (as well as all the usual advantages).  Where we disagree seems to be whether tabular information should be forced into semantically-illogical CSS for layout when perfectly good, semantically logical, html standards exist for a table.  Tabular data is best presented in tables - and is far more accessible that way.

 

If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.  All I'm suggesting is that the OP uses the most appropriate tool - CSS for layout/presentation, tables for tables.

 

Let's call it a draw :)

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??? are we at crossed wires here?

 

I would ALLWYS advocate placing tabular data being in a table.  I still use tables very often (admittedly I style them with css - but still use them where the markup is semantically correct.)

 

Did it come across as though I think tables shoudl be banned? If so I apolgize - they are great if used for what they are for.

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??? are we at crossed wires here?

 

Looks like we might have been - your comments relate to site development (and I agree with all you said); mine related solely to what I perceived to be exclusively the OP's original request for which I said (and I think we agree) a table was the best.  No harm done, and this might have been helpful to other readers.

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Ah that is where where our ideas part.

 

I don't think a profile is tabular data.  Tabular data is such that it can be organized in such a way that each field is not contiguous.  A list of users and their email addresses is certainly within this context; you can have a column of user names and emails.

 

The profile of an individual is not tabular data.  Think that displaying all the information from each field would require one column and ONLY ONE ROW.  There are no multiple instances of any sing data type so in that sense there is absolutely no justification in using a table as markup as it is NOT semantically correct.

 

Lets look at the OP.

 

Hey, Im not able to make a table look something like this:

 

Note the wook 'look'.  This is a styling issue and as such the div and css route would provide semantic markup...

 

That's my take at least - hope you can agree buddy (ever the evangelist) ;)

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Mind if I join the "discussion"?

 

I agree with both of you that CSS should be used on a normal page. I also agree that tables are for tabular data ONLY. That being said, the diagram shown to us looks like a profile of some sort (like MySpace). When I viewed the source of a random MySpace page, it showed that they primarily used divs. Now, I'm not saying MySpace is the only example of profiles. But logically thinking, the world's most-visited profile site uses CSS.

 

So, in my opinion, a profile should be considered as a "normal page". But let me emphasize that there is no right solution. Feel free to use tables or CSS. But please post this in the freelancing section if you want somebody else to do it for you.

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HUMBUG!

 

There is a correct solution - not using tables.

 

There is also an incorrect solution - using tables.

 

Both would give the desired VISUAL ouput. but they would differ greatly in how a screen reader would tell you what was on the page.  The fact that profile information is not really tabular data (unless you say two columns - column 1 is 'field' and filled with things like name, email etc. and column 2 is 'values' filled with John Smith, john.smith@beer.com etc) should help you decide to use the correct solution.

 

The other issue is bandwidth - a table layout will (in every case I have seen) invovle much more extraneous html to achieve the same effect; making the page load much more slowly.

 

There are too many reasons to not use tables for layout and anyone still insisting that it has its place in the world of professional/good design practice smells of poo!

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