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CSS CSS vs tables (help me please)

Discussion in 'Web Development' started by Linx, Feb 6, 2008.

  1. Linx

    Linx Member

    Can anybody tell me the difference between CSS technology of web sites creation and tables. Actually I'm familiar with CSS a bit, but have never heard about tables. All the information I came across on the Internet is so confused for me.

    Thanks.
     
    Linx, Feb 6, 2008
    #1
  2. ishkey

    ishkey Moderator, Logos, Sports Crests Staff Member Verified Member

    Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in your Web. In web development, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language.

    Tables are defined with the <table> tag. A table is divided into rows (with the <tr> tag), and each row is divided into data cells (with the <td> tag). The letters td stands for "table data," which is the content of a data cell. A data cell can contain text, images, lists, paragraphs, forms, horizontal rules, tables, etc.

    css shortens the load time and the errors, pages look better, more control.
    tables are long and create coding problems. web pages take forever to load.
    tables have their place in web pages for special uses.

    Tables= Old way to code
    css= New way to code

    You have see tables, if you have ever looked at a spread sheet.
     
    ishkey, Feb 6, 2008
    #2
  3. Linx

    Linx Member

    Ishkey, thank you again!
    Your feedback cleared the smoke. It helped me a lot!
    Thanks.
     
    Linx, Feb 7, 2008
    #3
  4. espero

    espero New Member

    Good explanation ishkey however i can not agree with statement that
    Tables does not created coding problem and web pages does not take forever to load.
    I could neither agree that tables are old way of coding.
    True is that css is new way of coding website and give you cleaner and easier look of code.
    I still use tables and have never faced any coding problem neither longer time of page load.
    Influence of longer code on page loading is nihil.
     
    espero, Feb 10, 2008
    #4
  5. alice789

    alice789 New Member

    CSS is better for SEO and much, much easier for design than managing tables, it does take a bit of time to learn. Table based websites are not acceptable or standards compliant in 2011.
     
    alice789, May 14, 2013
    #5
  6. navyfalcon

    navyfalcon Well-Known Member Verified Member

    CSS vs Tables

    CSS needs work arounds for certain versions of Microsoft IE (use if IE then ...)
    Tables need individual page changes but are used for number or content table type information (usually inside CSS framework). Building a website in tables is not professional (I do it anyway but I understand CSS is better - my web pages are mixed)
    People build web pages in HTML Tables, Javascript, Flash, etc. Flash should be used for enhancements. Javascript for enhancements if they can not be done with CSS. This makes the website more convenient for upgrades, modification and changes, also sometimes loads faster. Try the same page in different formats and you will see the difference. Then "optimization" (doing the same with less code) is what you want, because it will load faster [don't forget to compress the photos - biggest problem with page size]. Sometimes "sprites" is the answer.
    -
    hope this helps
    falcon
     
    navyfalcon, Jul 4, 2013
    #6
  7. navyfalcon

    navyfalcon Well-Known Member Verified Member

    Some good information on Optimization at:
    https://freewebsitetemplates.com/forums/threads/css-optimization.21065/
    -
    1st. Hand Optimization or improving code and removing unneeded items.
    2nd. Using Optimization software to reduce code
    -
    This makes the page load faster. I found from personal experience that the CSS loads faster than HTML Tables, but CSS is not always the best answer as some things do better with tables. CSS has its own problems: modifications so it displays correctly on different browsers (using work arounds or "if IE then ...) and text size (normal and bold text do not line up if in CSS but do line up in tables). Even though there are problems in CSS, normally it is better than tables (not always).
    -
    falcon
     
    navyfalcon, Jul 28, 2013
    #7