[WEB4LIB] Tables vs CSS-P (was Re: Re: Question 2)

[Araby Greene]

Kristina,

Here is an example of a page that uses positioned divs to create 3 columns.
I decided not to use it  because I didn't want to create two sets of web
pages and because the divs tend to obscure each other if the user increases
font size to the max. Not good.
http://nevadavotes.unr.edu/Default_csspositioned.htm
I did use JavaScript for the drop-downs, but if it's turned off, a "Go"
submit button displays.
The banner is the only div that contains a table.

The one I decided to use is done with both css and tables, and it looks
about the same.
http://nevadavotes.unr.edu/Default.htm
However, if a vision-impaired user increases font size to the max, it's
still readable. It doesn't look great in NS4 for several reasons (minimal
styles being one), but it's all there.

The version without tables loads a little faster and in text-only browsers
you have better control over the order in which elements appear. Our
audience for this site is not the university, but the general public, so
users are going to be older and their browsers are less predictable than
those of our regular clientele. This site isn't "live" yet, so there are a
few things that need fixing, and the audio files are not in place yet.

If we were using only two columns, I might have stuck with the "purer" CSS,
but there's not much wiggle room with 3 cols.

Good advice on css column layouts is at these sites (which others have also
mentioned):
http://glish.com
http://www.alistapart.com
http://www.bluerobot.com
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/

-araby greene

________________________
Araby Greene
araby at unr.edu
Web Development Librarian
Getchell Library/322
Univ. of Nevada, Reno
http://www.library.unr.edu/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kristina Mairi Buhrman" <kmb19 at cornell.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2002 11:08 AM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Tables vs CSS-P (was Re: Re: Question 2)


> At 10:25 AM 8/7/2002 -0700, Kevin W. Bishop wrote:
> >Think of using CSS for layout (or positioning) as less a "work around"
for
> >tables and rather a vast improvement that replaces the klunky, messy
markup
> >that pixel-perfect table layouts require.
>
> I haven't had much luck with using pure CSS-P for creating "liquid"
layouts
> (those that rearrange to any new browser window size) with anything more
> complex than a two column style layout. Has anyone had any particular
> problems or successes with this that they could share?
>
> (Currently, a project that's being worked on here has a header, and then
> four columns of information in the main body, and the programmer on the
> project is using fixed width for his tables. I'll be having to take
> elements of this project's design and applying it to the web pages of the
> unit libraries I work for, and I really prefer having the information fit
> the area of presentation, rather than sit frozen in a box, so this is
> currently on my mind. Unfortunately, we need to allow for a large number
of
> Netscape 4 users in our audience, and so table-layouts are probably here
to
> stay for us for a while. But I would like to have some hints for when the
> time comes that we can move away from tables.)
>
> Thank you for your input.
>
> -Kristina Buhrman  kmb19 at cornell.edu
>   Web support specialist
>   Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences Libraries
>   Cornell University
>