Why not use tables for layout in HTML

Question

It seems to be the general opinion that tables should not be used for layout in HTML    Why   I have never  or rarely to be honest  seen good arguments for this  The usual answers are    It s good to separate content from layoutBut this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking  I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and CSS By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs  Readability of the codeI think it s the other way around  Most people understand HTML  few understand CSS  It s better for SEO not to use tablesWhy  Can anybody show some evidence that it is  Or a statement from Google that tables are discouraged from an SEO perspective  Tables are slower An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers  Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page  A layout overhaul is easier without tables  see css Zen Garden Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  HTML  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new CSS file are not very likely  Zen Garden is a nice web site  but a bit theoretical  Not to mention its misuse of CSS    I am really interested in good arguments to use divs   CSS instead of tables

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div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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Google gives very low priority to text content contained inside a table  I was giving some SEO advice to a local charity  In examining their website it was using tables to layout the site  Looking at each page  no matter what words - or combination of words - from their pages I used in the Google search box the pages would not come up in any of the top search pages   However  by specifying the site in the search the page was returned   One page was well copy written by normal standards to produce a good result in a search but still it didn t appear in any of the first pages of search results returned   Note this text was within a table   I then spotted a section of text on the pages which was in a div rather than a table  We put a few of the words from that div in the search engine  Result  It came in at No 2 in the search result

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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Data  use tables  Layout  use styles  Tables can render fastest with a very lean browser  that is  Links 2 or Lynx with no styling  just plain markup

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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Data  use tables  Layout  use styles  Tables can render fastest with a very lean browser  that is  Links 2 or Lynx with no styling  just plain markup

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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When I design my layout using CSS  I generally give every major section its own root  body level  div  and use relative absolute positioning to get it into its proper place  This is a bit more flexible than tables  as I m not limited to an arrangement that I can represent using rows and columns   Furthermore  if I decide that I want to rearrange the layout  say I want the navigation bar to be on the right now  I can simply go and alter the position for the elements in one place  the CSS file  and the HTML doesn t have to change  If I were doing that with tables  I would have to go in and find the information and do a lot of attribute modding and copying and pasting to get the same effect   In fact  using CSS  I can even have my users select how they want their layout to work  So long as the general size of the content areas doesn t change  I m perfectly OK with using a bit of PHP scripting to output my CSS based on user preferences  and allowing them to rearrange the site to their own liking  Once again  possible with tables  but much much harder to maintain   Finally  CSS allows one MAJOR benefit that tables will never provide  the ability to reformat content based on the display device  CSS allows me to use a completely different style set  including position  formatting  etc  for a printer than the one I use for the monitor  This can be extended to other media as well  an excellent example is Opera Show  which allows a cleverly designed  and very standard  CSS enhanced page to be viewed as a slide show   So in the end  flexibility and management are the real winners  Generally  CSS allows you to do more with the layout  There s nothing technically nonstandard about a table based layout  but why would you want to limit yourself

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

User · Answer

Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

User · Answer

Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

User · Answer

When I design my layout using CSS  I generally give every major section its own root  body level  div  and use relative absolute positioning to get it into its proper place  This is a bit more flexible than tables  as I m not limited to an arrangement that I can represent using rows and columns   Furthermore  if I decide that I want to rearrange the layout  say I want the navigation bar to be on the right now  I can simply go and alter the position for the elements in one place  the CSS file  and the HTML doesn t have to change  If I were doing that with tables  I would have to go in and find the information and do a lot of attribute modding and copying and pasting to get the same effect   In fact  using CSS  I can even have my users select how they want their layout to work  So long as the general size of the content areas doesn t change  I m perfectly OK with using a bit of PHP scripting to output my CSS based on user preferences  and allowing them to rearrange the site to their own liking  Once again  possible with tables  but much much harder to maintain   Finally  CSS allows one MAJOR benefit that tables will never provide  the ability to reformat content based on the display device  CSS allows me to use a completely different style set  including position  formatting  etc  for a printer than the one I use for the monitor  This can be extended to other media as well  an excellent example is Opera Show  which allows a cleverly designed  and very standard  CSS enhanced page to be viewed as a slide show   So in the end  flexibility and management are the real winners  Generally  CSS allows you to do more with the layout  There s nothing technically nonstandard about a table based layout  but why would you want to limit yourself

User · Answer

I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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I still don t quite understand how divs   CSS make it easier to change a page design  when you consider the amount of testing to ensure the changes work on all browsers  especially with all the hacks and so on   Its a hugely frustrating and tedious process which wastes large amounts of time and money  Thankfully the 508 legislation only applies to the USA  land of the free - yeah right  and so being as I am based in the UK  I can develop web sites in whatever style I choose   Contrary to popular  US  belief  legislation made in Washington doesn t apply to the rest of the world - thank goodness for that   It must have been a good day in the world of web design the day the legislation came into force  I think I m becoming increasingly cynical as I get older with 25 years in the IT industry but I feel sure this kind of legislation is just to protect jobs   In reality anyone can knock together a reasonable web page with a couple of tables   It takes a lot more effort and knowledge to do this with DIVs   CSS   In my experience it can take hours and hours  Googling to find solutions to quite simple problems and reading incomprehensible articles in forums full of idealistic zealots all argueing about the  right  way to do things   You can t just dip your toe in the water and get things to work properly in every case   It also seems to me that the lack of a definitive guide to using DIVS   CSS  out of the box    that applies to all situations  working on browsers  and written using  normal  language with no geek speak  also smells of a bit of protectionism  I m an application developer and I would say it takes almost twice as long to figure out layout problems and test against all browsers than it does to create the basic application  design and implement business objects  and create the database back end   My time   money  both for me and my customers alike so I am sorry if I don t reject all the pro DIV   CSS arguments in favour of cutting costs and providing value for money for my customers   Maybe its just the way that developers minds work  but it seems to me far easier to change a complex table structure than it is to modify DIVs   CSS  Thankfully it now appears that a solution to these issues is now available - its called WPF

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

User · Answer

This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

User · Answer

Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

User · Answer

div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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Super short answer  designing maintainable websites is difficult with tables  and simple with the standard way to do it   A website isn t a table  it s a collection of components that interact with each other  Describing it as a table doesn t make sense

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I still don t quite understand how divs   CSS make it easier to change a page design  when you consider the amount of testing to ensure the changes work on all browsers  especially with all the hacks and so on   Its a hugely frustrating and tedious process which wastes large amounts of time and money  Thankfully the 508 legislation only applies to the USA  land of the free - yeah right  and so being as I am based in the UK  I can develop web sites in whatever style I choose   Contrary to popular  US  belief  legislation made in Washington doesn t apply to the rest of the world - thank goodness for that   It must have been a good day in the world of web design the day the legislation came into force  I think I m becoming increasingly cynical as I get older with 25 years in the IT industry but I feel sure this kind of legislation is just to protect jobs   In reality anyone can knock together a reasonable web page with a couple of tables   It takes a lot more effort and knowledge to do this with DIVs   CSS   In my experience it can take hours and hours  Googling to find solutions to quite simple problems and reading incomprehensible articles in forums full of idealistic zealots all argueing about the  right  way to do things   You can t just dip your toe in the water and get things to work properly in every case   It also seems to me that the lack of a definitive guide to using DIVS   CSS  out of the box    that applies to all situations  working on browsers  and written using  normal  language with no geek speak  also smells of a bit of protectionism  I m an application developer and I would say it takes almost twice as long to figure out layout problems and test against all browsers than it does to create the basic application  design and implement business objects  and create the database back end   My time   money  both for me and my customers alike so I am sorry if I don t reject all the pro DIV   CSS arguments in favour of cutting costs and providing value for money for my customers   Maybe its just the way that developers minds work  but it seems to me far easier to change a complex table structure than it is to modify DIVs   CSS  Thankfully it now appears that a solution to these issues is now available - its called WPF

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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One example  you want to center the   main content area of a page  but in   order to contain the floats inside it    it needs to be floated  There is no    float  center  in CSS    That is not the only way to  contain the floats  inside a centred element  So  not a good argument at all   In a way  it s a false premise  the  divs vs tables  thing   Quick-and-dirty division of a page into three columns  Tables are easier  to be honest  But no professional uses them any more for layout  because they lock the positioning of page elements into the page   The real argument is  positioning done by CSS  hopefully in a remote file   as opposed to  positioning done by HTML in the page   Surely everyone can see the benefits of the former as opposed to the latter    Size -- if your page layout is in the HTML  in the pages  it can t be cached  and it has to be repeated on every page  You will save enormous amounts of bandwidth if your layout is in a cached CSS file  not in the page  Multiple developers can work on the same page at the same time -- I work on the HTML  other guy works on the CSS  No repository needed  no problems with over-writing  file locking etc  Making changes is easier -- there will be problems with layout in different browsers  but you only have to fix one file  the CSS file  to sort them out  Accessibility  as mentioned a lot previously  Tables assume a two-dimensional layout works for everyone  That s not how some users view your content and it s not how Google views your content     Consider this     picture     picture     picture     caption     caption     caption     which represents two rows of a table with 6 cells  Someone who can see the 2-D table layout will see a caption under each picture  But using speech synthesis  or a PDA  and for a search engine spider  that s   picture picture picture caption caption caption   and the relationship  which is obvious with the table in place  disappears   Are DIVs and CSS better for the task of simply laying out rectangles on an HTML page to achieve a given design in the shortest possible time  No  they re probably not  But I m not in the business of quickly laying out rectangles to achieve a given design   I m thinking of a much bigger picture

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One example  you want to center the   main content area of a page  but in   order to contain the floats inside it    it needs to be floated  There is no    float  center  in CSS    That is not the only way to  contain the floats  inside a centred element  So  not a good argument at all   In a way  it s a false premise  the  divs vs tables  thing   Quick-and-dirty division of a page into three columns  Tables are easier  to be honest  But no professional uses them any more for layout  because they lock the positioning of page elements into the page   The real argument is  positioning done by CSS  hopefully in a remote file   as opposed to  positioning done by HTML in the page   Surely everyone can see the benefits of the former as opposed to the latter    Size -- if your page layout is in the HTML  in the pages  it can t be cached  and it has to be repeated on every page  You will save enormous amounts of bandwidth if your layout is in a cached CSS file  not in the page  Multiple developers can work on the same page at the same time -- I work on the HTML  other guy works on the CSS  No repository needed  no problems with over-writing  file locking etc  Making changes is easier -- there will be problems with layout in different browsers  but you only have to fix one file  the CSS file  to sort them out  Accessibility  as mentioned a lot previously  Tables assume a two-dimensional layout works for everyone  That s not how some users view your content and it s not how Google views your content     Consider this     picture     picture     picture     caption     caption     caption     which represents two rows of a table with 6 cells  Someone who can see the 2-D table layout will see a caption under each picture  But using speech synthesis  or a PDA  and for a search engine spider  that s   picture picture picture caption caption caption   and the relationship  which is obvious with the table in place  disappears   Are DIVs and CSS better for the task of simply laying out rectangles on an HTML page to achieve a given design in the shortest possible time  No  they re probably not  But I m not in the business of quickly laying out rectangles to achieve a given design   I m thinking of a much bigger picture

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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I researched the issue of screen readers and tables a few years ago and came up with information that contradicts what most developers believe   http   www webaim org techniques tables    You will probably hear some accessibility advocates say that layout tables are a bad idea  and that CSS layout techniques ought to be used instead  There is truth in what they say  but  to be honest  using tables for layout is not the worst thing that you could do in terms of accessibility  People with all kinds of disabilities can easily access tables  as long as the tables are designed with accessibility in mind

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Because it s HELL to maintain a site that uses tables  and takes a LOT longer to code  If you re scared of floating divs  go take a course in them  They re not difficult to understand and they re approximately 100 times more efficient and a million times less a pain in the ass  unless you don t understand them -- but hey  welcome to the world of computers    Anyone considering doing their layout with a table better not expect me to maintain it  It s the most ass-backwards way to render a website  Thank god we have a much better alternative now  I would NEVER go back   It s scary that some folks might not be aware of the time and energy benefits from creating a site using modern tools

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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When I design my layout using CSS  I generally give every major section its own root  body level  div  and use relative absolute positioning to get it into its proper place  This is a bit more flexible than tables  as I m not limited to an arrangement that I can represent using rows and columns   Furthermore  if I decide that I want to rearrange the layout  say I want the navigation bar to be on the right now  I can simply go and alter the position for the elements in one place  the CSS file  and the HTML doesn t have to change  If I were doing that with tables  I would have to go in and find the information and do a lot of attribute modding and copying and pasting to get the same effect   In fact  using CSS  I can even have my users select how they want their layout to work  So long as the general size of the content areas doesn t change  I m perfectly OK with using a bit of PHP scripting to output my CSS based on user preferences  and allowing them to rearrange the site to their own liking  Once again  possible with tables  but much much harder to maintain   Finally  CSS allows one MAJOR benefit that tables will never provide  the ability to reformat content based on the display device  CSS allows me to use a completely different style set  including position  formatting  etc  for a printer than the one I use for the monitor  This can be extended to other media as well  an excellent example is Opera Show  which allows a cleverly designed  and very standard  CSS enhanced page to be viewed as a slide show   So in the end  flexibility and management are the real winners  Generally  CSS allows you to do more with the layout  There s nothing technically nonstandard about a table based layout  but why would you want to limit yourself

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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As per my knowledge on tables  if too many tables are nested  there is a great overhead to browser  in rendering the page    1 - The browser has wait to render the final view wait until the entire table gets loaded   2 - The algorithm to render the table is expensive and is not in a single go  The browser  as and when  gets the contents  will try to render calculating the content width and height  So  if you are having nested tables  say  the browser has received the first row and the 1st cell is having large amount of content and width and height not defined  it will calculate the width and will render the first row  In the mean while it gets the 2nd row will cell 2 having loads of content  It will now calculate the width for 2nd row cells   What about the first   It will calculate widths recursively  That s bad at client side   To site an example  As a programmer  you ll optimize stuffs such as time to fetch data  optimized data structures and etc  You optimize things to complete on server side  say in2 secs  but end user in getting the final view in 8 secs   What is wrong here        1  May be network is slow  What if network is fine   What is network is delivering the contents in next 1 sec   Where is this extra 5 secs getting consumed   Thing to worry about-- The browser might be taking lot of time in estimating and rendering the tables   How to optimize tables   If you re using tables  I would suggest  always define width for the cells  This does not guarantees that browser will blindly take this widths only  but would be of great help to browser in deciding the initial widths   But  at the end  div are great way as CSS can be cached by the browser  while table aren t cached

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

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Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

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I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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Flex has a tag for laying things out in vertical columns  I don t think they got the whole layout content thing right either to be honest  but at least they ve resolved that issue   Like many of the people frustrated with CSS I ve also looked far and wide for an easy answer  was duped into feeling elated when I thought I had found it  and then had my hopes dashed to pieces when I opened the page in Chrome  I m definitely not skilled enough to say it s not possible  but I haven t seen anyone offer up sample code for peer review proving unequivocally that it can be done reliably   So can someone from the CSS side of this island recommend a mindset methodology for laying out vertical columns  I ve tried absolute positioning in second and third rows  but i end up with stuff overlapping everywhere and float has similar issues if the page is shrunk down   If there was an answer to this I d be ecstatic to -do the right thing- Just tell me something like   Hey have you tried   flow vertical horizontal  and I m totally out of your hair

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Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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Layout should be easy  The fact that there are articles written on how to achieve a dynamic three column layout with header and footer in CSS shows that it is a poor layout system  Of course you can get it to work  but there are literally hundreds of articles online about how to do it  There are pretty much no such articles for a similar layout with tables because it s patently obvious  No matter what you say against tables and in favor of CSS  this one fact undoes it all  a basic three column layout in CSS is often called  The Holy Grail    If that doesn t make you say  WTF  then you really need to put down the kool-aid now   I love CSS  It offers amazing styling options and some cool positioning tools  but as a layout engine it is deficient  There needs to be some type of dynamic grid positioning system  A straightforward way to align boxes on multiple axis without knowing their sizes first  I don t give a damn if you call it  lt table gt  or  lt gridlayout gt  or whatever  but this is a basic layout feature that is missing from CSS   The larger problem is that by not admitting there are missing features  the CSS zealots have been holding CSS back from all it could be  I d be perfectly happy to stop using tables if CSS provided decent multi-axis grid positioning like basically every other layout engine in the world   You do realize this problem has already been solved many times in many languages by everyone except the W3C  right  And nobody else denied that such a feature was useful     Sigh  Enough venting  Go ahead and stick your head back in the sand

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I researched the issue of screen readers and tables a few years ago and came up with information that contradicts what most developers believe   http   www webaim org techniques tables    You will probably hear some accessibility advocates say that layout tables are a bad idea  and that CSS layout techniques ought to be used instead  There is truth in what they say  but  to be honest  using tables for layout is not the worst thing that you could do in terms of accessibility  People with all kinds of disabilities can easily access tables  as long as the tables are designed with accessibility in mind

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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Layout should be easy  The fact that there are articles written on how to achieve a dynamic three column layout with header and footer in CSS shows that it is a poor layout system  Of course you can get it to work  but there are literally hundreds of articles online about how to do it  There are pretty much no such articles for a similar layout with tables because it s patently obvious  No matter what you say against tables and in favor of CSS  this one fact undoes it all  a basic three column layout in CSS is often called  The Holy Grail    If that doesn t make you say  WTF  then you really need to put down the kool-aid now   I love CSS  It offers amazing styling options and some cool positioning tools  but as a layout engine it is deficient  There needs to be some type of dynamic grid positioning system  A straightforward way to align boxes on multiple axis without knowing their sizes first  I don t give a damn if you call it  lt table gt  or  lt gridlayout gt  or whatever  but this is a basic layout feature that is missing from CSS   The larger problem is that by not admitting there are missing features  the CSS zealots have been holding CSS back from all it could be  I d be perfectly happy to stop using tables if CSS provided decent multi-axis grid positioning like basically every other layout engine in the world   You do realize this problem has already been solved many times in many languages by everyone except the W3C  right  And nobody else denied that such a feature was useful     Sigh  Enough venting  Go ahead and stick your head back in the sand

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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The issue of strictly separating presentation and content strikes me as roughly analogous to separating header files from implementation files in C    It makes sense  but it can also be a pain  Witness Java and C  where classes are defined in a single source file  The authors of the newer languages noticed something that was causing programmers headaches and they got rid of it  That seems to be the gist of this discussion  One side is saying CSS is too difficult  the other side is saying one must become a CSS master   For simple layout issues why not bend the rule that says presentation must be completely separate  What about a new tag  or some extension to the div tag  that allows us to control presentation directly in HTML  After all  aren t we already leaking presentation into HTML  Look at h1  h2   h6  We all know these control presentation   The ability to read code  and HTML is code  is very important  Gurus tend to overlook how important it is to make a programming environment as accessible to the masses as possible  It is very shortsighted to think that only professional programmers matter

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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Try to merge split a 10 20 something deep colspan rowspan  More than once I had to supress my instinct to start a fight with someone       Try to change source code order without changing visible order   SEO  usability       The very  really simple  page we re looking at is  150K  I bet It can nearly be halved using proper CSS   SEO  Yes  SEO  read latest Google specs etc   perfo       Try to make an iterator template that can work in any width  The discussion of the matter in this table-based medium of SO can cause a singularity and destroy us all

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One example  you want to center the   main content area of a page  but in   order to contain the floats inside it    it needs to be floated  There is no    float  center  in CSS    That is not the only way to  contain the floats  inside a centred element  So  not a good argument at all   In a way  it s a false premise  the  divs vs tables  thing   Quick-and-dirty division of a page into three columns  Tables are easier  to be honest  But no professional uses them any more for layout  because they lock the positioning of page elements into the page   The real argument is  positioning done by CSS  hopefully in a remote file   as opposed to  positioning done by HTML in the page   Surely everyone can see the benefits of the former as opposed to the latter    Size -- if your page layout is in the HTML  in the pages  it can t be cached  and it has to be repeated on every page  You will save enormous amounts of bandwidth if your layout is in a cached CSS file  not in the page  Multiple developers can work on the same page at the same time -- I work on the HTML  other guy works on the CSS  No repository needed  no problems with over-writing  file locking etc  Making changes is easier -- there will be problems with layout in different browsers  but you only have to fix one file  the CSS file  to sort them out  Accessibility  as mentioned a lot previously  Tables assume a two-dimensional layout works for everyone  That s not how some users view your content and it s not how Google views your content     Consider this     picture     picture     picture     caption     caption     caption     which represents two rows of a table with 6 cells  Someone who can see the 2-D table layout will see a caption under each picture  But using speech synthesis  or a PDA  and for a search engine spider  that s   picture picture picture caption caption caption   and the relationship  which is obvious with the table in place  disappears   Are DIVs and CSS better for the task of simply laying out rectangles on an HTML page to achieve a given design in the shortest possible time  No  they re probably not  But I m not in the business of quickly laying out rectangles to achieve a given design   I m thinking of a much bigger picture

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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The fact that this is a hotly debated question is a testament to the failure of the W3C to anticipate the diversity of layout designs which would be attempted  Using divs css for semantically-friendly layout is a great concept  but the details of implementation are so flawed that they actually limit creative freedom   I attempted to switch one of our company s sites from tables to divs  and it was such a headache that I totally scrapped the hours of work I had poured into it and went back to tables  Trying to wrestle with my divs in order to gain control of vertical alignment has cursed me with major psychological issues that I will never shake as long as this debate rages on   The fact that people must frequently come up with complex and ugly workarounds to accomplish simple design goals  such as vertical alignment  strongly suggests that the rules are not nearly flexible enough  If the specs ARE sufficient  then why do high-profile sites  like SO  find it necessary to bend the rules using tables and other workarounds

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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I was surprised to see some issues were not already covered  so here are my 2 cents  in addition to all the very valid points made earlier    1  CSS  amp  SEO   a  CSS used to have a very significant impact on SEO by allowing to position the content in the page wherever you want  A few years ago  Search Engines were giving a significant emphasis to  on-page  factors  Something at the top of the page was deemed more relevant to the page than something located at the bottom   Top of the page  for a spider meant  at the beginning of the code   Using CSS  you could organize your keyword-rich content at the beginning of the code  and still position it wherever you liked in the page  This is still somewhat relevant  but on page factors are less and less important for page ranking   b  When the layout is moved over to CSS  the HTML page is lighter and therefore loads faster for a search engine spider   spiders don t bother downloading external css files   Fast loading pages is an important ranking consideration for several search engines  including Google  c  SEO work often requires testing and changing things  which is much more convenient with a CSS based layout   2  Generated content   A table is considerably easier to generate programmically than the equivalent CSS layout   foreach   comment as  key  gt  value       echo   lt tr gt  lt td gt  key lt  td gt  lt td gt  value lt  td gt  lt  tr gt        Generating a table is simple and safe  It is self-contained and integrates well within any template  To do the same with CSS is considerably harder and may be of no benefit at all  hard to edit the CSS stylesheet on the flight  and adding the style inline is no different from using a table  content is not separated from layout    Further  when a table is generated  the content  in variables  is already separated from the layout  in code   making it as easy to modify   This is one reason why some very well designed websites  SO for instance  still use table layouts   Of course  if the results need to be acted upon through JavaScript  divs are worth the trouble     3  Quick conversion testing  When figuring out what works for a specific audience  it is useful to be able to change the layout in various ways to figure out what gets the best results  A CSS based layout makes things considerably easier   4  Different solutions for different problems  Layout tables are usually dissed because  everybody knows divs  amp  CSS  are the way to go    However the fact remains that tables are faster to create  easier to understand and are more robust than most CSS layouts   Yes  CSS can be as robust  but a quick look through the net on different browsers and screen resolutions shows it s not often the case   There are a lot of downsides to tables  including maintenance  lack of flexibility    but let s not throw the baby with the bath water  There are plenty of professional uses for a solution which is both quick and reliable    Some time ago  I had to rewrite a clean and simple CSS layout using tables because a significant portion of the users would be using an older version of IE with really bad support for CSS  I  for one  am sick and tired of the knee-jerk reaction  Oh noes  Tables for layout    As for the  it wasn t intended for that purpose and therefore you shouldn t use it this way  crowd  isn t that hypocrisy  What do you think of all the CSS tricks you have to use to get the darn thing working in most browsers  Were they meant for that purpose

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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DOM Manipulation is difficult in a table-based layout   With semantic divs             myawesomediv   click function           Do awesome stuff       With tables        table tr td table tr td table tr td          click function           Cry self to sleep at night       Now  granted  the second example is kind of stupid  and you can always apply IDs or classes to a table or td element  but that would be adding semantic value  which is what table proponents so vehemently oppose

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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CSS DIV - it s just jobs for the design boys  isn t it   The hundreds of hours I ve spent debugging DIV CSS issues  searching the Internet to get some part of markup working with an obscure browser - it drives me mad   You make one little change and the whole layout goes horrendously wrong - where on eath is the logic in that   Spending hours moving something 3 pixels this way then something else 2 pixels the other to get them all to line up   This just seems plain wrong to me somehow   Just because you re a purist and something is  not the right thing to do  doesn t mean you should make use of it to the nth degree and under all circumstances  especially if it makes your life 1000 times easier     So I ve finally decided  purely on commercial grounds  although I keep use to minimum  if I anticipate 20 hours work to get a DIV placed correctly  I ll stick in a table   It s wrong  it upsets the purists  but in most cases it costs less time and is cheaper to manage  I can then concentrate on getting the application working as the customer wants  rather than pleasing the purists   They do pay the bills after all and my argument to a manager enforcing the use of CSS DIV - I would merely point out the customers pay his salary as well     The only reason all these CSS DIV arguments occur is because of the shortcoming of CSS in the first place and because the browsers aren t compatible with each other and if they were  half the web designers in the world would be out of a job   When you design a windows form you don t try moving controls around after you have laid them out so I kind of think it s strange to me why you would you want to do this with a web form   I simply can t understand this logic   Get the layout right to start with and what s the problem   I think it s because designers like to flirt with creativity  whilst application developers are more concerned with actually getting the application working  creating business objects  implementing business rules  working out how bits of customer data relates to each other  ensuring the thing meets the customers requirements - you know - like the real world stuff     Don t get me wrong  both arguments are valid  but please don t critise developers for choosing an easier  more logical approach to designing forms   We often have more important things to worry about than the correct semantics of using a table over a div   Case in point - based on this discussion I converted a few existing tds and trs to divs  45 minutes messing about with it trying to get everything to line up next to each other and I gave up   TDs back in 10 seconds later - works - straight away - on all browsers  nothing more to do   Please try to make me understand - what possible justification do you have for wanting me to do it any other way

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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Super short answer  designing maintainable websites is difficult with tables  and simple with the standard way to do it   A website isn t a table  it s a collection of components that interact with each other  Describing it as a table doesn t make sense

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As per my knowledge on tables  if too many tables are nested  there is a great overhead to browser  in rendering the page    1 - The browser has wait to render the final view wait until the entire table gets loaded   2 - The algorithm to render the table is expensive and is not in a single go  The browser  as and when  gets the contents  will try to render calculating the content width and height  So  if you are having nested tables  say  the browser has received the first row and the 1st cell is having large amount of content and width and height not defined  it will calculate the width and will render the first row  In the mean while it gets the 2nd row will cell 2 having loads of content  It will now calculate the width for 2nd row cells   What about the first   It will calculate widths recursively  That s bad at client side   To site an example  As a programmer  you ll optimize stuffs such as time to fetch data  optimized data structures and etc  You optimize things to complete on server side  say in2 secs  but end user in getting the final view in 8 secs   What is wrong here        1  May be network is slow  What if network is fine   What is network is delivering the contents in next 1 sec   Where is this extra 5 secs getting consumed   Thing to worry about-- The browser might be taking lot of time in estimating and rendering the tables   How to optimize tables   If you re using tables  I would suggest  always define width for the cells  This does not guarantees that browser will blindly take this widths only  but would be of great help to browser in deciding the initial widths   But  at the end  div are great way as CSS can be cached by the browser  while table aren t cached

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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When I design my layout using CSS  I generally give every major section its own root  body level  div  and use relative absolute positioning to get it into its proper place  This is a bit more flexible than tables  as I m not limited to an arrangement that I can represent using rows and columns   Furthermore  if I decide that I want to rearrange the layout  say I want the navigation bar to be on the right now  I can simply go and alter the position for the elements in one place  the CSS file  and the HTML doesn t have to change  If I were doing that with tables  I would have to go in and find the information and do a lot of attribute modding and copying and pasting to get the same effect   In fact  using CSS  I can even have my users select how they want their layout to work  So long as the general size of the content areas doesn t change  I m perfectly OK with using a bit of PHP scripting to output my CSS based on user preferences  and allowing them to rearrange the site to their own liking  Once again  possible with tables  but much much harder to maintain   Finally  CSS allows one MAJOR benefit that tables will never provide  the ability to reformat content based on the display device  CSS allows me to use a completely different style set  including position  formatting  etc  for a printer than the one I use for the monitor  This can be extended to other media as well  an excellent example is Opera Show  which allows a cleverly designed  and very standard  CSS enhanced page to be viewed as a slide show   So in the end  flexibility and management are the real winners  Generally  CSS allows you to do more with the layout  There s nothing technically nonstandard about a table based layout  but why would you want to limit yourself

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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By still using table for layouts  we are missing on the innovation on the div side    Many have come up with solutions that make creating layout for divs easier  The most popular being the grid architecture  There are dynamic layout generators based on this architecture  Check out  1  960 gs and  http   grids heroku com   2  blueprint  and so many of late    I have not seen much of innovation in terms of architecture and tools with the tables layout    I would say  all the theories aside  practically layout with CSS and divs are faster  Rather innovation in this direction made it easier than anything

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Data  use tables  Layout  use styles  Tables can render fastest with a very lean browser  that is  Links 2 or Lynx with no styling  just plain markup

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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I researched the issue of screen readers and tables a few years ago and came up with information that contradicts what most developers believe   http   www webaim org techniques tables    You will probably hear some accessibility advocates say that layout tables are a bad idea  and that CSS layout techniques ought to be used instead  There is truth in what they say  but  to be honest  using tables for layout is not the worst thing that you could do in terms of accessibility  People with all kinds of disabilities can easily access tables  as long as the tables are designed with accessibility in mind

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Data  use tables  Layout  use styles  Tables can render fastest with a very lean browser  that is  Links 2 or Lynx with no styling  just plain markup

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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The fact that this is a hotly debated question is a testament to the failure of the W3C to anticipate the diversity of layout designs which would be attempted  Using divs css for semantically-friendly layout is a great concept  but the details of implementation are so flawed that they actually limit creative freedom   I attempted to switch one of our company s sites from tables to divs  and it was such a headache that I totally scrapped the hours of work I had poured into it and went back to tables  Trying to wrestle with my divs in order to gain control of vertical alignment has cursed me with major psychological issues that I will never shake as long as this debate rages on   The fact that people must frequently come up with complex and ugly workarounds to accomplish simple design goals  such as vertical alignment  strongly suggests that the rules are not nearly flexible enough  If the specs ARE sufficient  then why do high-profile sites  like SO  find it necessary to bend the rules using tables and other workarounds

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Super short answer  designing maintainable websites is difficult with tables  and simple with the standard way to do it   A website isn t a table  it s a collection of components that interact with each other  Describing it as a table doesn t make sense

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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As per my knowledge on tables  if too many tables are nested  there is a great overhead to browser  in rendering the page    1 - The browser has wait to render the final view wait until the entire table gets loaded   2 - The algorithm to render the table is expensive and is not in a single go  The browser  as and when  gets the contents  will try to render calculating the content width and height  So  if you are having nested tables  say  the browser has received the first row and the 1st cell is having large amount of content and width and height not defined  it will calculate the width and will render the first row  In the mean while it gets the 2nd row will cell 2 having loads of content  It will now calculate the width for 2nd row cells   What about the first   It will calculate widths recursively  That s bad at client side   To site an example  As a programmer  you ll optimize stuffs such as time to fetch data  optimized data structures and etc  You optimize things to complete on server side  say in2 secs  but end user in getting the final view in 8 secs   What is wrong here        1  May be network is slow  What if network is fine   What is network is delivering the contents in next 1 sec   Where is this extra 5 secs getting consumed   Thing to worry about-- The browser might be taking lot of time in estimating and rendering the tables   How to optimize tables   If you re using tables  I would suggest  always define width for the cells  This does not guarantees that browser will blindly take this widths only  but would be of great help to browser in deciding the initial widths   But  at the end  div are great way as CSS can be cached by the browser  while table aren t cached

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Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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CSS DIV - it s just jobs for the design boys  isn t it   The hundreds of hours I ve spent debugging DIV CSS issues  searching the Internet to get some part of markup working with an obscure browser - it drives me mad   You make one little change and the whole layout goes horrendously wrong - where on eath is the logic in that   Spending hours moving something 3 pixels this way then something else 2 pixels the other to get them all to line up   This just seems plain wrong to me somehow   Just because you re a purist and something is  not the right thing to do  doesn t mean you should make use of it to the nth degree and under all circumstances  especially if it makes your life 1000 times easier     So I ve finally decided  purely on commercial grounds  although I keep use to minimum  if I anticipate 20 hours work to get a DIV placed correctly  I ll stick in a table   It s wrong  it upsets the purists  but in most cases it costs less time and is cheaper to manage  I can then concentrate on getting the application working as the customer wants  rather than pleasing the purists   They do pay the bills after all and my argument to a manager enforcing the use of CSS DIV - I would merely point out the customers pay his salary as well     The only reason all these CSS DIV arguments occur is because of the shortcoming of CSS in the first place and because the browsers aren t compatible with each other and if they were  half the web designers in the world would be out of a job   When you design a windows form you don t try moving controls around after you have laid them out so I kind of think it s strange to me why you would you want to do this with a web form   I simply can t understand this logic   Get the layout right to start with and what s the problem   I think it s because designers like to flirt with creativity  whilst application developers are more concerned with actually getting the application working  creating business objects  implementing business rules  working out how bits of customer data relates to each other  ensuring the thing meets the customers requirements - you know - like the real world stuff     Don t get me wrong  both arguments are valid  but please don t critise developers for choosing an easier  more logical approach to designing forms   We often have more important things to worry about than the correct semantics of using a table over a div   Case in point - based on this discussion I converted a few existing tds and trs to divs  45 minutes messing about with it trying to get everything to line up next to each other and I gave up   TDs back in 10 seconds later - works - straight away - on all browsers  nothing more to do   Please try to make me understand - what possible justification do you have for wanting me to do it any other way

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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DOM Manipulation is difficult in a table-based layout   With semantic divs             myawesomediv   click function           Do awesome stuff       With tables        table tr td table tr td table tr td          click function           Cry self to sleep at night       Now  granted  the second example is kind of stupid  and you can always apply IDs or classes to a table or td element  but that would be adding semantic value  which is what table proponents so vehemently oppose

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Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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Try to merge split a 10 20 something deep colspan rowspan  More than once I had to supress my instinct to start a fight with someone       Try to change source code order without changing visible order   SEO  usability       The very  really simple  page we re looking at is  150K  I bet It can nearly be halved using proper CSS   SEO  Yes  SEO  read latest Google specs etc   perfo       Try to make an iterator template that can work in any width  The discussion of the matter in this table-based medium of SO can cause a singularity and destroy us all

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The issue of strictly separating presentation and content strikes me as roughly analogous to separating header files from implementation files in C    It makes sense  but it can also be a pain  Witness Java and C  where classes are defined in a single source file  The authors of the newer languages noticed something that was causing programmers headaches and they got rid of it  That seems to be the gist of this discussion  One side is saying CSS is too difficult  the other side is saying one must become a CSS master   For simple layout issues why not bend the rule that says presentation must be completely separate  What about a new tag  or some extension to the div tag  that allows us to control presentation directly in HTML  After all  aren t we already leaking presentation into HTML  Look at h1  h2   h6  We all know these control presentation   The ability to read code  and HTML is code  is very important  Gurus tend to overlook how important it is to make a programming environment as accessible to the masses as possible  It is very shortsighted to think that only professional programmers matter

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

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Flex has a tag for laying things out in vertical columns  I don t think they got the whole layout content thing right either to be honest  but at least they ve resolved that issue   Like many of the people frustrated with CSS I ve also looked far and wide for an easy answer  was duped into feeling elated when I thought I had found it  and then had my hopes dashed to pieces when I opened the page in Chrome  I m definitely not skilled enough to say it s not possible  but I haven t seen anyone offer up sample code for peer review proving unequivocally that it can be done reliably   So can someone from the CSS side of this island recommend a mindset methodology for laying out vertical columns  I ve tried absolute positioning in second and third rows  but i end up with stuff overlapping everywhere and float has similar issues if the page is shrunk down   If there was an answer to this I d be ecstatic to -do the right thing- Just tell me something like   Hey have you tried   flow vertical horizontal  and I m totally out of your hair

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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Layout should be easy  The fact that there are articles written on how to achieve a dynamic three column layout with header and footer in CSS shows that it is a poor layout system  Of course you can get it to work  but there are literally hundreds of articles online about how to do it  There are pretty much no such articles for a similar layout with tables because it s patently obvious  No matter what you say against tables and in favor of CSS  this one fact undoes it all  a basic three column layout in CSS is often called  The Holy Grail    If that doesn t make you say  WTF  then you really need to put down the kool-aid now   I love CSS  It offers amazing styling options and some cool positioning tools  but as a layout engine it is deficient  There needs to be some type of dynamic grid positioning system  A straightforward way to align boxes on multiple axis without knowing their sizes first  I don t give a damn if you call it  lt table gt  or  lt gridlayout gt  or whatever  but this is a basic layout feature that is missing from CSS   The larger problem is that by not admitting there are missing features  the CSS zealots have been holding CSS back from all it could be  I d be perfectly happy to stop using tables if CSS provided decent multi-axis grid positioning like basically every other layout engine in the world   You do realize this problem has already been solved many times in many languages by everyone except the W3C  right  And nobody else denied that such a feature was useful     Sigh  Enough venting  Go ahead and stick your head back in the sand

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

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This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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Because it s HELL to maintain a site that uses tables  and takes a LOT longer to code  If you re scared of floating divs  go take a course in them  They re not difficult to understand and they re approximately 100 times more efficient and a million times less a pain in the ass  unless you don t understand them -- but hey  welcome to the world of computers    Anyone considering doing their layout with a table better not expect me to maintain it  It s the most ass-backwards way to render a website  Thank god we have a much better alternative now  I would NEVER go back   It s scary that some folks might not be aware of the time and energy benefits from creating a site using modern tools

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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I still don t quite understand how divs   CSS make it easier to change a page design  when you consider the amount of testing to ensure the changes work on all browsers  especially with all the hacks and so on   Its a hugely frustrating and tedious process which wastes large amounts of time and money  Thankfully the 508 legislation only applies to the USA  land of the free - yeah right  and so being as I am based in the UK  I can develop web sites in whatever style I choose   Contrary to popular  US  belief  legislation made in Washington doesn t apply to the rest of the world - thank goodness for that   It must have been a good day in the world of web design the day the legislation came into force  I think I m becoming increasingly cynical as I get older with 25 years in the IT industry but I feel sure this kind of legislation is just to protect jobs   In reality anyone can knock together a reasonable web page with a couple of tables   It takes a lot more effort and knowledge to do this with DIVs   CSS   In my experience it can take hours and hours  Googling to find solutions to quite simple problems and reading incomprehensible articles in forums full of idealistic zealots all argueing about the  right  way to do things   You can t just dip your toe in the water and get things to work properly in every case   It also seems to me that the lack of a definitive guide to using DIVS   CSS  out of the box    that applies to all situations  working on browsers  and written using  normal  language with no geek speak  also smells of a bit of protectionism  I m an application developer and I would say it takes almost twice as long to figure out layout problems and test against all browsers than it does to create the basic application  design and implement business objects  and create the database back end   My time   money  both for me and my customers alike so I am sorry if I don t reject all the pro DIV   CSS arguments in favour of cutting costs and providing value for money for my customers   Maybe its just the way that developers minds work  but it seems to me far easier to change a complex table structure than it is to modify DIVs   CSS  Thankfully it now appears that a solution to these issues is now available - its called WPF

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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I researched the issue of screen readers and tables a few years ago and came up with information that contradicts what most developers believe   http   www webaim org techniques tables    You will probably hear some accessibility advocates say that layout tables are a bad idea  and that CSS layout techniques ought to be used instead  There is truth in what they say  but  to be honest  using tables for layout is not the worst thing that you could do in terms of accessibility  People with all kinds of disabilities can easily access tables  as long as the tables are designed with accessibility in mind

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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By still using table for layouts  we are missing on the innovation on the div side    Many have come up with solutions that make creating layout for divs easier  The most popular being the grid architecture  There are dynamic layout generators based on this architecture  Check out  1  960 gs and  http   grids heroku com   2  blueprint  and so many of late    I have not seen much of innovation in terms of architecture and tools with the tables layout    I would say  all the theories aside  practically layout with CSS and divs are faster  Rather innovation in this direction made it easier than anything

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Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

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This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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Flex has a tag for laying things out in vertical columns  I don t think they got the whole layout content thing right either to be honest  but at least they ve resolved that issue   Like many of the people frustrated with CSS I ve also looked far and wide for an easy answer  was duped into feeling elated when I thought I had found it  and then had my hopes dashed to pieces when I opened the page in Chrome  I m definitely not skilled enough to say it s not possible  but I haven t seen anyone offer up sample code for peer review proving unequivocally that it can be done reliably   So can someone from the CSS side of this island recommend a mindset methodology for laying out vertical columns  I ve tried absolute positioning in second and third rows  but i end up with stuff overlapping everywhere and float has similar issues if the page is shrunk down   If there was an answer to this I d be ecstatic to -do the right thing- Just tell me something like   Hey have you tried   flow vertical horizontal  and I m totally out of your hair

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Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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Super short answer  designing maintainable websites is difficult with tables  and simple with the standard way to do it   A website isn t a table  it s a collection of components that interact with each other  Describing it as a table doesn t make sense

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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1  Yes  your users do care  If they use a screen reader  it will be lost  If I use any other tool which tries to extract information from the page  encountering tables that aren t used to represent tabular data is misleading   A div or span is acceptable for separating content because that is precisely the meaning of those elements  When I  a search engine  a screen reader or anything else  encounter a table element  we expect that this means  the following is tabular data  represented in a table   When we encounter a div  we expect  this is an element used to divide my content into separate parts or areas   2  Readability  Wrong  If all the presentation code is in css  I can read the html and I ll understand the content of the page  Or I can read the css and understand the presentation  If everything is jumbled together in the html  I have to mentally strike out all the presentation-related bits before I can even see what is content and what isn t  Moreover  I d be scared to meet a web developer who didn t understand css  so I really don t think that is an issue   3  Tables are slower  Yes  they are  The reason is simple  Tables have to be parsed completely  including their contents before they can be rendered  A div can be rendered when it is encountered  even before its contents have been parsed  That means divs will show up before the page has finished loading   And then there s the bonus  that tables are much more fragile  and won t always be rendered the same in different browsers  with different fonts and font sizes and all the other factors that can cause layout to vary  Tables are an excellent way to ensure that your site will be off by a pixel or two in certain browsers  won t scale well when the user changes his font size  or changes his settings in any other way   Of course  1 is the big one  A lot of tools and applications depend on the semantic meaning of a webpage  The usual example is screen-readers for visually impaired users  If you re a web developer  you ll find that many large companies who may otherwise hire you to work on a site  require that the site is accessible even in this case  Which means you have to think about the semantic meaning of your html  With the semantic web  or more relevantly  microformats  rss readers and other tools  your page content is no longer viewed exclusively through a browser

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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The issue of strictly separating presentation and content strikes me as roughly analogous to separating header files from implementation files in C    It makes sense  but it can also be a pain  Witness Java and C  where classes are defined in a single source file  The authors of the newer languages noticed something that was causing programmers headaches and they got rid of it  That seems to be the gist of this discussion  One side is saying CSS is too difficult  the other side is saying one must become a CSS master   For simple layout issues why not bend the rule that says presentation must be completely separate  What about a new tag  or some extension to the div tag  that allows us to control presentation directly in HTML  After all  aren t we already leaking presentation into HTML  Look at h1  h2   h6  We all know these control presentation   The ability to read code  and HTML is code  is very important  Gurus tend to overlook how important it is to make a programming environment as accessible to the masses as possible  It is very shortsighted to think that only professional programmers matter

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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Google gives very low priority to text content contained inside a table  I was giving some SEO advice to a local charity  In examining their website it was using tables to layout the site  Looking at each page  no matter what words - or combination of words - from their pages I used in the Google search box the pages would not come up in any of the top search pages   However  by specifying the site in the search the page was returned   One page was well copy written by normal standards to produce a good result in a search but still it didn t appear in any of the first pages of search results returned   Note this text was within a table   I then spotted a section of text on the pages which was in a div rather than a table  We put a few of the words from that div in the search engine  Result  It came in at No 2 in the search result

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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One example  you want to center the   main content area of a page  but in   order to contain the floats inside it    it needs to be floated  There is no    float  center  in CSS    That is not the only way to  contain the floats  inside a centred element  So  not a good argument at all   In a way  it s a false premise  the  divs vs tables  thing   Quick-and-dirty division of a page into three columns  Tables are easier  to be honest  But no professional uses them any more for layout  because they lock the positioning of page elements into the page   The real argument is  positioning done by CSS  hopefully in a remote file   as opposed to  positioning done by HTML in the page   Surely everyone can see the benefits of the former as opposed to the latter    Size -- if your page layout is in the HTML  in the pages  it can t be cached  and it has to be repeated on every page  You will save enormous amounts of bandwidth if your layout is in a cached CSS file  not in the page  Multiple developers can work on the same page at the same time -- I work on the HTML  other guy works on the CSS  No repository needed  no problems with over-writing  file locking etc  Making changes is easier -- there will be problems with layout in different browsers  but you only have to fix one file  the CSS file  to sort them out  Accessibility  as mentioned a lot previously  Tables assume a two-dimensional layout works for everyone  That s not how some users view your content and it s not how Google views your content     Consider this     picture     picture     picture     caption     caption     caption     which represents two rows of a table with 6 cells  Someone who can see the 2-D table layout will see a caption under each picture  But using speech synthesis  or a PDA  and for a search engine spider  that s   picture picture picture caption caption caption   and the relationship  which is obvious with the table in place  disappears   Are DIVs and CSS better for the task of simply laying out rectangles on an HTML page to achieve a given design in the shortest possible time  No  they re probably not  But I m not in the business of quickly laying out rectangles to achieve a given design   I m thinking of a much bigger picture

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

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Layout should be easy  The fact that there are articles written on how to achieve a dynamic three column layout with header and footer in CSS shows that it is a poor layout system  Of course you can get it to work  but there are literally hundreds of articles online about how to do it  There are pretty much no such articles for a similar layout with tables because it s patently obvious  No matter what you say against tables and in favor of CSS  this one fact undoes it all  a basic three column layout in CSS is often called  The Holy Grail    If that doesn t make you say  WTF  then you really need to put down the kool-aid now   I love CSS  It offers amazing styling options and some cool positioning tools  but as a layout engine it is deficient  There needs to be some type of dynamic grid positioning system  A straightforward way to align boxes on multiple axis without knowing their sizes first  I don t give a damn if you call it  lt table gt  or  lt gridlayout gt  or whatever  but this is a basic layout feature that is missing from CSS   The larger problem is that by not admitting there are missing features  the CSS zealots have been holding CSS back from all it could be  I d be perfectly happy to stop using tables if CSS provided decent multi-axis grid positioning like basically every other layout engine in the world   You do realize this problem has already been solved many times in many languages by everyone except the W3C  right  And nobody else denied that such a feature was useful     Sigh  Enough venting  Go ahead and stick your head back in the sand

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I m sorry for my English but here s another reason     I worked in some governmental organization and the number one reason to not use TABLE  is for disabled peoples  They use machines to  translate  web pages   The problem is this  translation machine  can t read the website if it s done by TABLE  Why   Because TABLE are for DATAS    in fact  if you use TABLES  for each CELLS you have to specify some informations to let disabled people to know where they are in the TABLE  Imagine you have a big table and have to zoom to see only 1 cell in the screen   you have to know in which line col you are   So  DIV are used  and the disabled can simply read text  and don t get some weird informations about lines cols when they don t have to be there   I also prefer TABLE to make quick and easy templates  but I m now used to CSS    it s powerful  but you really have to know what you are doing

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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I m sorry for my English but here s another reason     I worked in some governmental organization and the number one reason to not use TABLE  is for disabled peoples  They use machines to  translate  web pages   The problem is this  translation machine  can t read the website if it s done by TABLE  Why   Because TABLE are for DATAS    in fact  if you use TABLES  for each CELLS you have to specify some informations to let disabled people to know where they are in the TABLE  Imagine you have a big table and have to zoom to see only 1 cell in the screen   you have to know in which line col you are   So  DIV are used  and the disabled can simply read text  and don t get some weird informations about lines cols when they don t have to be there   I also prefer TABLE to make quick and easy templates  but I m now used to CSS    it s powerful  but you really have to know what you are doing

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I m sorry for my English but here s another reason     I worked in some governmental organization and the number one reason to not use TABLE  is for disabled peoples  They use machines to  translate  web pages   The problem is this  translation machine  can t read the website if it s done by TABLE  Why   Because TABLE are for DATAS    in fact  if you use TABLES  for each CELLS you have to specify some informations to let disabled people to know where they are in the TABLE  Imagine you have a big table and have to zoom to see only 1 cell in the screen   you have to know in which line col you are   So  DIV are used  and the disabled can simply read text  and don t get some weird informations about lines cols when they don t have to be there   I also prefer TABLE to make quick and easy templates  but I m now used to CSS    it s powerful  but you really have to know what you are doing

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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I was surprised to see some issues were not already covered  so here are my 2 cents  in addition to all the very valid points made earlier    1  CSS  amp  SEO   a  CSS used to have a very significant impact on SEO by allowing to position the content in the page wherever you want  A few years ago  Search Engines were giving a significant emphasis to  on-page  factors  Something at the top of the page was deemed more relevant to the page than something located at the bottom   Top of the page  for a spider meant  at the beginning of the code   Using CSS  you could organize your keyword-rich content at the beginning of the code  and still position it wherever you liked in the page  This is still somewhat relevant  but on page factors are less and less important for page ranking   b  When the layout is moved over to CSS  the HTML page is lighter and therefore loads faster for a search engine spider   spiders don t bother downloading external css files   Fast loading pages is an important ranking consideration for several search engines  including Google  c  SEO work often requires testing and changing things  which is much more convenient with a CSS based layout   2  Generated content   A table is considerably easier to generate programmically than the equivalent CSS layout   foreach   comment as  key  gt  value       echo   lt tr gt  lt td gt  key lt  td gt  lt td gt  value lt  td gt  lt  tr gt        Generating a table is simple and safe  It is self-contained and integrates well within any template  To do the same with CSS is considerably harder and may be of no benefit at all  hard to edit the CSS stylesheet on the flight  and adding the style inline is no different from using a table  content is not separated from layout    Further  when a table is generated  the content  in variables  is already separated from the layout  in code   making it as easy to modify   This is one reason why some very well designed websites  SO for instance  still use table layouts   Of course  if the results need to be acted upon through JavaScript  divs are worth the trouble     3  Quick conversion testing  When figuring out what works for a specific audience  it is useful to be able to change the layout in various ways to figure out what gets the best results  A CSS based layout makes things considerably easier   4  Different solutions for different problems  Layout tables are usually dissed because  everybody knows divs  amp  CSS  are the way to go    However the fact remains that tables are faster to create  easier to understand and are more robust than most CSS layouts   Yes  CSS can be as robust  but a quick look through the net on different browsers and screen resolutions shows it s not often the case   There are a lot of downsides to tables  including maintenance  lack of flexibility    but let s not throw the baby with the bath water  There are plenty of professional uses for a solution which is both quick and reliable    Some time ago  I had to rewrite a clean and simple CSS layout using tables because a significant portion of the users would be using an older version of IE with really bad support for CSS  I  for one  am sick and tired of the knee-jerk reaction  Oh noes  Tables for layout    As for the  it wasn t intended for that purpose and therefore you shouldn t use it this way  crowd  isn t that hypocrisy  What do you think of all the CSS tricks you have to use to get the darn thing working in most browsers  Were they meant for that purpose

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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I once learned that a table loads at once  in other words when a connection is slow  the space where the table comes remains blank until the entire table is loaded  a div on the other hand loads top to bottom as fast as the data comes and regardless if it is allready complete or not

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

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Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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I still don t quite understand how divs   CSS make it easier to change a page design  when you consider the amount of testing to ensure the changes work on all browsers  especially with all the hacks and so on   Its a hugely frustrating and tedious process which wastes large amounts of time and money  Thankfully the 508 legislation only applies to the USA  land of the free - yeah right  and so being as I am based in the UK  I can develop web sites in whatever style I choose   Contrary to popular  US  belief  legislation made in Washington doesn t apply to the rest of the world - thank goodness for that   It must have been a good day in the world of web design the day the legislation came into force  I think I m becoming increasingly cynical as I get older with 25 years in the IT industry but I feel sure this kind of legislation is just to protect jobs   In reality anyone can knock together a reasonable web page with a couple of tables   It takes a lot more effort and knowledge to do this with DIVs   CSS   In my experience it can take hours and hours  Googling to find solutions to quite simple problems and reading incomprehensible articles in forums full of idealistic zealots all argueing about the  right  way to do things   You can t just dip your toe in the water and get things to work properly in every case   It also seems to me that the lack of a definitive guide to using DIVS   CSS  out of the box    that applies to all situations  working on browsers  and written using  normal  language with no geek speak  also smells of a bit of protectionism  I m an application developer and I would say it takes almost twice as long to figure out layout problems and test against all browsers than it does to create the basic application  design and implement business objects  and create the database back end   My time   money  both for me and my customers alike so I am sorry if I don t reject all the pro DIV   CSS arguments in favour of cutting costs and providing value for money for my customers   Maybe its just the way that developers minds work  but it seems to me far easier to change a complex table structure than it is to modify DIVs   CSS  Thankfully it now appears that a solution to these issues is now available - its called WPF

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div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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The fact that this is a hotly debated question is a testament to the failure of the W3C to anticipate the diversity of layout designs which would be attempted  Using divs css for semantically-friendly layout is a great concept  but the details of implementation are so flawed that they actually limit creative freedom   I attempted to switch one of our company s sites from tables to divs  and it was such a headache that I totally scrapped the hours of work I had poured into it and went back to tables  Trying to wrestle with my divs in order to gain control of vertical alignment has cursed me with major psychological issues that I will never shake as long as this debate rages on   The fact that people must frequently come up with complex and ugly workarounds to accomplish simple design goals  such as vertical alignment  strongly suggests that the rules are not nearly flexible enough  If the specs ARE sufficient  then why do high-profile sites  like SO  find it necessary to bend the rules using tables and other workarounds

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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I try to avoid TABLEs as much as possible  but when we are designing complex forms that mix multiple control types and different caption positions with pretty strict controls on grouping  using DIVs is unreliable or often near impossible   Now  I will not argue that these forms could not be redesigned to better accommodate a DIV based layout  but for some of them our customer is adamant about not changing the existing layouts from the previous version  written in classic ASP  because it parallels a paper form that their users are familiar with   Because the presentation of the forms is dynamic  where the display of some sections is based on the state of the case or the permissions of the user   we use sets of stacked DIVs  each containing a TABLE of logically grouped form elements  Each column of the TABLE is classed so that they can be controlled by CSS  That way we can turn off different sections of the form without the problem of not being table to wrap rows in DIVs

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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DOM Manipulation is difficult in a table-based layout   With semantic divs             myawesomediv   click function           Do awesome stuff       With tables        table tr td table tr td table tr td          click function           Cry self to sleep at night       Now  granted  the second example is kind of stupid  and you can always apply IDs or classes to a table or td element  but that would be adding semantic value  which is what table proponents so vehemently oppose

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This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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Try to merge split a 10 20 something deep colspan rowspan  More than once I had to supress my instinct to start a fight with someone       Try to change source code order without changing visible order   SEO  usability       The very  really simple  page we re looking at is  150K  I bet It can nearly be halved using proper CSS   SEO  Yes  SEO  read latest Google specs etc   perfo       Try to make an iterator template that can work in any width  The discussion of the matter in this table-based medium of SO can cause a singularity and destroy us all

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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Using DIV  you can easily switch things  For example  you could make this    Menu   Content  Content   Menu  Menu ---- Content   It s easy to change it in CSS  not in HTML  You can also provide several styles  right handed  left handed  special for little screen    In CSS  you can also hide the menu in a special stylesheet used for printing   Another good thing  is that your content is always in the same order in the code  the menu first  the content after  even if visually it s presented otherwise

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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By still using table for layouts  we are missing on the innovation on the div side    Many have come up with solutions that make creating layout for divs easier  The most popular being the grid architecture  There are dynamic layout generators based on this architecture  Check out  1  960 gs and  http   grids heroku com   2  blueprint  and so many of late    I have not seen much of innovation in terms of architecture and tools with the tables layout    I would say  all the theories aside  practically layout with CSS and divs are faster  Rather innovation in this direction made it easier than anything

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The fact that this is a hotly debated question is a testament to the failure of the W3C to anticipate the diversity of layout designs which would be attempted  Using divs css for semantically-friendly layout is a great concept  but the details of implementation are so flawed that they actually limit creative freedom   I attempted to switch one of our company s sites from tables to divs  and it was such a headache that I totally scrapped the hours of work I had poured into it and went back to tables  Trying to wrestle with my divs in order to gain control of vertical alignment has cursed me with major psychological issues that I will never shake as long as this debate rages on   The fact that people must frequently come up with complex and ugly workarounds to accomplish simple design goals  such as vertical alignment  strongly suggests that the rules are not nearly flexible enough  If the specs ARE sufficient  then why do high-profile sites  like SO  find it necessary to bend the rules using tables and other workarounds

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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Try to merge split a 10 20 something deep colspan rowspan  More than once I had to supress my instinct to start a fight with someone       Try to change source code order without changing visible order   SEO  usability       The very  really simple  page we re looking at is  150K  I bet It can nearly be halved using proper CSS   SEO  Yes  SEO  read latest Google specs etc   perfo       Try to make an iterator template that can work in any width  The discussion of the matter in this table-based medium of SO can cause a singularity and destroy us all

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DOM Manipulation is difficult in a table-based layout   With semantic divs             myawesomediv   click function           Do awesome stuff       With tables        table tr td table tr td table tr td          click function           Cry self to sleep at night       Now  granted  the second example is kind of stupid  and you can always apply IDs or classes to a table or td element  but that would be adding semantic value  which is what table proponents so vehemently oppose

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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Because it s HELL to maintain a site that uses tables  and takes a LOT longer to code  If you re scared of floating divs  go take a course in them  They re not difficult to understand and they re approximately 100 times more efficient and a million times less a pain in the ass  unless you don t understand them -- but hey  welcome to the world of computers    Anyone considering doing their layout with a table better not expect me to maintain it  It s the most ass-backwards way to render a website  Thank god we have a much better alternative now  I would NEVER go back   It s scary that some folks might not be aware of the time and energy benefits from creating a site using modern tools

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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Looks like you are just used to tables and that s it  Putting layout in a table limits you for just that layout  With CSS you can move bits around  take a look at http   csszengarden com  And no  layout does not usally require a lot of nested divs   With no tables for layout and proper semantics HTML is much cleaner  hence easier to read   Why should someone who cannot understand CSS try to read it  And if someone considers himself to be webdeveloper then the good grasp of CSS is a must   SEO benefits come from the ability to have most important content higher up the page and  having better content-to-markup ratio   http   www hotdesign com seybold

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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From past experience  I d have to go for DIV s  Even in OOP  the main aim is to reduce the coupling between objects  so this concept can be applied to DIVS and tables  Tables are used for holding data  not for arranging it around a page  A DIV is specifically designed to arrange items around a page  so the design should use DIV s  tables should be used to store data   Also  editting websites made with tables is just plain hard  in my opinion

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I was surprised to see some issues were not already covered  so here are my 2 cents  in addition to all the very valid points made earlier    1  CSS  amp  SEO   a  CSS used to have a very significant impact on SEO by allowing to position the content in the page wherever you want  A few years ago  Search Engines were giving a significant emphasis to  on-page  factors  Something at the top of the page was deemed more relevant to the page than something located at the bottom   Top of the page  for a spider meant  at the beginning of the code   Using CSS  you could organize your keyword-rich content at the beginning of the code  and still position it wherever you liked in the page  This is still somewhat relevant  but on page factors are less and less important for page ranking   b  When the layout is moved over to CSS  the HTML page is lighter and therefore loads faster for a search engine spider   spiders don t bother downloading external css files   Fast loading pages is an important ranking consideration for several search engines  including Google  c  SEO work often requires testing and changing things  which is much more convenient with a CSS based layout   2  Generated content   A table is considerably easier to generate programmically than the equivalent CSS layout   foreach   comment as  key  gt  value       echo   lt tr gt  lt td gt  key lt  td gt  lt td gt  value lt  td gt  lt  tr gt        Generating a table is simple and safe  It is self-contained and integrates well within any template  To do the same with CSS is considerably harder and may be of no benefit at all  hard to edit the CSS stylesheet on the flight  and adding the style inline is no different from using a table  content is not separated from layout    Further  when a table is generated  the content  in variables  is already separated from the layout  in code   making it as easy to modify   This is one reason why some very well designed websites  SO for instance  still use table layouts   Of course  if the results need to be acted upon through JavaScript  divs are worth the trouble     3  Quick conversion testing  When figuring out what works for a specific audience  it is useful to be able to change the layout in various ways to figure out what gets the best results  A CSS based layout makes things considerably easier   4  Different solutions for different problems  Layout tables are usually dissed because  everybody knows divs  amp  CSS  are the way to go    However the fact remains that tables are faster to create  easier to understand and are more robust than most CSS layouts   Yes  CSS can be as robust  but a quick look through the net on different browsers and screen resolutions shows it s not often the case   There are a lot of downsides to tables  including maintenance  lack of flexibility    but let s not throw the baby with the bath water  There are plenty of professional uses for a solution which is both quick and reliable    Some time ago  I had to rewrite a clean and simple CSS layout using tables because a significant portion of the users would be using an older version of IE with really bad support for CSS  I  for one  am sick and tired of the knee-jerk reaction  Oh noes  Tables for layout    As for the  it wasn t intended for that purpose and therefore you shouldn t use it this way  crowd  isn t that hypocrisy  What do you think of all the CSS tricks you have to use to get the darn thing working in most browsers  Were they meant for that purpose

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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One table for layout wouldn t be that bad   But you can t get the layout you need with just one table most of the time   Pretty soon you have 2 or three nested tables   This becomes very cumbersome    It IS a LOT harder to read   That s not up to opinion   There s just more nested tags with no identifying marks on them  Separating content from presentation is a good thing because it allows you to focus on what you re doing   Mixing the two leads to bloated pages that are hard to read  CSS for styles allows your browser to cache the files and subsequent requests are much faster   This is HUGE  Tables lock you into a design   Sure  not everyone needs the flexibility of CSS Zen Garden  but I ve never worked on a site where I didn t need to change the design a little bit here and there   It s much easier with CSS  Tables are hard to style   You don t have very much flexibility with them  i e  you still need to add HTML attributes to fully control a table s styles    I haven t used tables for non-tabular data in probably 4 years   I haven t looked back   I d really like to suggest reading CSS Mastery by Andy Budd   It s fantastic   Image at ecx images-amazon com http   ecx images-amazon com images I 41TH5NFKPEL  SL500 BO2 204 203 200 PIsitb-dp-500-arrow TopRight 45 -64 OU01 AA240 SH20  jpg

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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The separation between content and layout makes it also easier to generate printer-friendly layouts or just different skins  styles  for your site  without having to create different html-files  Some browser  like Firefox  even support selecting a stylesheet from the view-menu   And I do think it s easier to maintain a tableless layout  You don t have to worry about rowspans  colspans  etc  You just create some container-divs and place the content where you need to  And that said I think it also more readable   lt div id  sidebar  gt  vs  lt tr gt  lt td gt     lt  td gt  lt td gt     lt td gt sidebar lt  td gt  lt  tr gt     It s just a little  trick  you have to learn  and once you mastered the trick  I think it s easier and makes more sense

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Cliche Thinking   It s a fallacious argument because HTML tables are layout   The content is the data in the table  the presentation is the table itself   This is why separating CSS from HTML can be very difficult at times   You re not separating content from presentation  you re separating presentation from presentation   A pile of nested divs is no different than a table - it s just a different set of tags     The other problem with separating the HTML from the CSS is that they need intimate knowledge of one another - you really can t separate them fully   The tag layout in the HTML is tightly coupled with the CSS file no matter what you do   I think tables vs divs comes down to the needs of your application     In the application we develop at work  we needed a page layout where the pieces would dynamically size themselves to their content   I spent days trying to get this to work cross-browser with CSS and DIVs and it was a complete nightmare   We switched to tables and it all just worked   However  we have a very closed audience for our product  we sell a piece of hardware with a web interface  and accessibility issues are not a concern for us   I don t know why screen readers can t deal with tables well  but I guess if that s the way it is then developers have to handle it

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I m sorry for my English but here s another reason     I worked in some governmental organization and the number one reason to not use TABLE  is for disabled peoples  They use machines to  translate  web pages   The problem is this  translation machine  can t read the website if it s done by TABLE  Why   Because TABLE are for DATAS    in fact  if you use TABLES  for each CELLS you have to specify some informations to let disabled people to know where they are in the TABLE  Imagine you have a big table and have to zoom to see only 1 cell in the screen   you have to know in which line col you are   So  DIV are used  and the disabled can simply read text  and don t get some weird informations about lines cols when they don t have to be there   I also prefer TABLE to make quick and easy templates  but I m now used to CSS    it s powerful  but you really have to know what you are doing

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Google gives very low priority to text content contained inside a table  I was giving some SEO advice to a local charity  In examining their website it was using tables to layout the site  Looking at each page  no matter what words - or combination of words - from their pages I used in the Google search box the pages would not come up in any of the top search pages   However  by specifying the site in the search the page was returned   One page was well copy written by normal standards to produce a good result in a search but still it didn t appear in any of the first pages of search results returned   Note this text was within a table   I then spotted a section of text on the pages which was in a div rather than a table  We put a few of the words from that div in the search engine  Result  It came in at No 2 in the search result

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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Here s a section of html from a recent project    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt div id  header  gt           lt h1 gt  lt  -- Page title -- gt  lt  h1 gt           lt ol id  navigation  gt               lt  -- Navigation items -- gt           lt  ol gt           lt div class  clearfix  gt  lt  div gt       lt  div gt       lt div id  sidebar  gt           lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt       lt  div gt       lt  -- Page content -- gt       lt p id  footer  gt  lt  -- Footer content -- gt  lt  p gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    And here s that same code as a table based layout    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE html PUBLIC  -  W3C  DTD XHTML 1 0 Strict  EN   http   www w3 org TR xhtml1 DTD xhtml1-strict dtd  gt   lt html xmlns  http   www w3 org 1999 xhtml  xml lang  en  lang  en  gt   lt head gt       lt title gt  DYNAMIC TITLE   lt  title gt       lt meta http-equiv  content-type  content  text html charset utf-8    gt       lt meta http-equiv  Content-Style-Type  content  text css    gt       lt link rel  stylesheet  type  text css  href    styles base css    gt   lt  head gt   lt body gt       lt table cellspacing  0  gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page Title -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt                   lt table gt                       lt tr gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                           lt td gt Navitem lt  td gt                       lt  tr gt                   lt  table gt               lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt        lt table gt           lt tr gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Page content -- gt  lt  td gt               lt td gt  lt  -- Sidebar content -- gt  lt  td gt           lt  tr gt           lt tr gt               lt td colspan  2  gt Footer lt  td gt           lt  tr gt       lt  table gt   lt  body gt   lt  html gt    The only cleanliness I see in that table based layout is the fact that I m overzealous with my indentation  I m sure that the content section would have a further two embedded tables   Another thing to think about  filesizes  I ve found that table-based layouts are twice the size of their CSS counterparts usually  On our hig-speed broadband that isn t a huge issue but it is on those with dial up modems

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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508 Compliance - the ability for a screenreader to make sense of your markup  Waiting for render - tables don t render in the browser until it gets to the end of the  lt  table gt  element

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By still using table for layouts  we are missing on the innovation on the div side    Many have come up with solutions that make creating layout for divs easier  The most popular being the grid architecture  There are dynamic layout generators based on this architecture  Check out  1  960 gs and  http   grids heroku com   2  blueprint  and so many of late    I have not seen much of innovation in terms of architecture and tools with the tables layout    I would say  all the theories aside  practically layout with CSS and divs are faster  Rather innovation in this direction made it easier than anything

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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CSS DIV - it s just jobs for the design boys  isn t it   The hundreds of hours I ve spent debugging DIV CSS issues  searching the Internet to get some part of markup working with an obscure browser - it drives me mad   You make one little change and the whole layout goes horrendously wrong - where on eath is the logic in that   Spending hours moving something 3 pixels this way then something else 2 pixels the other to get them all to line up   This just seems plain wrong to me somehow   Just because you re a purist and something is  not the right thing to do  doesn t mean you should make use of it to the nth degree and under all circumstances  especially if it makes your life 1000 times easier     So I ve finally decided  purely on commercial grounds  although I keep use to minimum  if I anticipate 20 hours work to get a DIV placed correctly  I ll stick in a table   It s wrong  it upsets the purists  but in most cases it costs less time and is cheaper to manage  I can then concentrate on getting the application working as the customer wants  rather than pleasing the purists   They do pay the bills after all and my argument to a manager enforcing the use of CSS DIV - I would merely point out the customers pay his salary as well     The only reason all these CSS DIV arguments occur is because of the shortcoming of CSS in the first place and because the browsers aren t compatible with each other and if they were  half the web designers in the world would be out of a job   When you design a windows form you don t try moving controls around after you have laid them out so I kind of think it s strange to me why you would you want to do this with a web form   I simply can t understand this logic   Get the layout right to start with and what s the problem   I think it s because designers like to flirt with creativity  whilst application developers are more concerned with actually getting the application working  creating business objects  implementing business rules  working out how bits of customer data relates to each other  ensuring the thing meets the customers requirements - you know - like the real world stuff     Don t get me wrong  both arguments are valid  but please don t critise developers for choosing an easier  more logical approach to designing forms   We often have more important things to worry about than the correct semantics of using a table over a div   Case in point - based on this discussion I converted a few existing tds and trs to divs  45 minutes messing about with it trying to get everything to line up next to each other and I gave up   TDs back in 10 seconds later - works - straight away - on all browsers  nothing more to do   Please try to make me understand - what possible justification do you have for wanting me to do it any other way

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It doesn t have to be a war  Harmony is possible   Use one table for the overall layout and divs inside it     lt table gt        lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Top content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt tr gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Left navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Main content lt  div gt  lt  td gt            lt td gt  lt div gt Right navigation lt  div gt  lt  td gt        lt  tr gt       lt tr gt  lt td colspan  3  gt  lt div gt Bottom content lt  div gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt   lt  table gt    Look - no nested tables   I have read so many articles on how to achieve this with divs but have never found anything that works every time with no issues   Divs are great once you have the overall structure but quite frankly  fluid header footer and three fluid columns is a total pain in divs  Divs weren t designed for fluidity so why use them   Note that this approach will give you 100   CSS compliance at link text

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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According to 508 compliance  for screen readers for visually impared   tables should only be used to hold data and not for layout as it causes the screen readers to freak out   Or so I ve been told   If you assign names to each of the divs  you can skin them all together using CSS as well   They re just a bit more of a pain to get to sit the way you need them to

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Unfortunately  CSS Zen Garden can no longer be used as an example of good HTML CSS design   Virtually all of their recent designs use graphics for section heading   These graphic files are specified in the CSS   Hence  a website whose purpose is to show the advantage of keeping design out of content  now regularly commits the UNSPEAKABLE SIN of putting content into design    If the section heading in the HTML file were to change  the section heading displayed would not    Which only goes to show that even those advocate the strict DIV  amp  CSS religion  can t follow their own rules    You may use that as a guideline in how closely you follow them

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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The issue of strictly separating presentation and content strikes me as roughly analogous to separating header files from implementation files in C    It makes sense  but it can also be a pain  Witness Java and C  where classes are defined in a single source file  The authors of the newer languages noticed something that was causing programmers headaches and they got rid of it  That seems to be the gist of this discussion  One side is saying CSS is too difficult  the other side is saying one must become a CSS master   For simple layout issues why not bend the rule that says presentation must be completely separate  What about a new tag  or some extension to the div tag  that allows us to control presentation directly in HTML  After all  aren t we already leaking presentation into HTML  Look at h1  h2   h6  We all know these control presentation   The ability to read code  and HTML is code  is very important  Gurus tend to overlook how important it is to make a programming environment as accessible to the masses as possible  It is very shortsighted to think that only professional programmers matter

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I d like to add that div-based layouts are easer to mantain  evolve  and refactor   Just some changes in the CSS to reorder elements and it is done   From my experience  redesign a layout that uses tables is a nightmare  more if there are nested tables    Your code also has a meaning from a semantic point of view

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Tables are not in general easier or more maintainable than CSS  However  there are a few specific layout-problems where tables are indeed the simplest and most flexible solution   CSS is clearly preferable in cases where presentational markup and CSS support the same kind of design  no one in their right mind would argue that font-tags are better than specifying typography in CSS  since CSS gives you the same power than font-tags  but in a much cleaner way   The issue with tables  however  is basically that the table-layout model in CSS is not supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer  Tables and CSS are therefore not equivalent in power  The missing part is the grid-like behavior of tables  where the edges of cells align both vertically and horizontally  while cells still expand to contain their content  This behavior is not easy to achieve in pure CSS without hardcoding some dimensions  which makes the design rigid and brittle  as long as we have to support Internet Explorer - in other browsers this is easliy achieved by using display table-cell    So it s not really a question of whether tables or CSS is preferable  but it is a question of recognizing the specific cases where use of tables may make the layout more flexible   The most important reason for not using tables is accessibility  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines http   www w3 org TR WCAG10  advice againt using tables for layout  If you are concerned about accessibility  and in some cases you may be legally obliged to   you should use CSS even if tables are simpler  Note that you can always create the same layout with CSS as with tables  it might just require more work

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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I do believe this is an issue connected to a general problem  When HTML was born no one could foresee its widespread use  Another technology which almost collapsed under the weight of its own success  When HTML pages were written in vi on a green text terminal a TABLE was all that was needed to present data to the visitors of the page  and it mostly was data that made sense in a tabular form   We all know how things evolved  TABLEs went out of fashion comparatively recently  but there are lots of reasons to prefer DIVs and CSS based layouts  accessibility not the last of them   Of course I can t write a CSS to save my life  -  and I think a graphical design expert should always be at hand    That said    there are lots of data that should be presented in a table even in a modern web site

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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I think that boat has sailed  If you look at the direction the industry has taken you will notice that CSS and Open Standards are the winners of that discussion  Which in turn means for most html work  with the exception of forms  the designers will use divs instead of tables  I have a hard time with that because I am not a CSS guru but thats the way it is

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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Flex has a tag for laying things out in vertical columns  I don t think they got the whole layout content thing right either to be honest  but at least they ve resolved that issue   Like many of the people frustrated with CSS I ve also looked far and wide for an easy answer  was duped into feeling elated when I thought I had found it  and then had my hopes dashed to pieces when I opened the page in Chrome  I m definitely not skilled enough to say it s not possible  but I haven t seen anyone offer up sample code for peer review proving unequivocally that it can be done reliably   So can someone from the CSS side of this island recommend a mindset methodology for laying out vertical columns  I ve tried absolute positioning in second and third rows  but i end up with stuff overlapping everywhere and float has similar issues if the page is shrunk down   If there was an answer to this I d be ecstatic to -do the right thing- Just tell me something like   Hey have you tried   flow vertical horizontal  and I m totally out of your hair

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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CSS DIV - it s just jobs for the design boys  isn t it   The hundreds of hours I ve spent debugging DIV CSS issues  searching the Internet to get some part of markup working with an obscure browser - it drives me mad   You make one little change and the whole layout goes horrendously wrong - where on eath is the logic in that   Spending hours moving something 3 pixels this way then something else 2 pixels the other to get them all to line up   This just seems plain wrong to me somehow   Just because you re a purist and something is  not the right thing to do  doesn t mean you should make use of it to the nth degree and under all circumstances  especially if it makes your life 1000 times easier     So I ve finally decided  purely on commercial grounds  although I keep use to minimum  if I anticipate 20 hours work to get a DIV placed correctly  I ll stick in a table   It s wrong  it upsets the purists  but in most cases it costs less time and is cheaper to manage  I can then concentrate on getting the application working as the customer wants  rather than pleasing the purists   They do pay the bills after all and my argument to a manager enforcing the use of CSS DIV - I would merely point out the customers pay his salary as well     The only reason all these CSS DIV arguments occur is because of the shortcoming of CSS in the first place and because the browsers aren t compatible with each other and if they were  half the web designers in the world would be out of a job   When you design a windows form you don t try moving controls around after you have laid them out so I kind of think it s strange to me why you would you want to do this with a web form   I simply can t understand this logic   Get the layout right to start with and what s the problem   I think it s because designers like to flirt with creativity  whilst application developers are more concerned with actually getting the application working  creating business objects  implementing business rules  working out how bits of customer data relates to each other  ensuring the thing meets the customers requirements - you know - like the real world stuff     Don t get me wrong  both arguments are valid  but please don t critise developers for choosing an easier  more logical approach to designing forms   We often have more important things to worry about than the correct semantics of using a table over a div   Case in point - based on this discussion I converted a few existing tds and trs to divs  45 minutes messing about with it trying to get everything to line up next to each other and I gave up   TDs back in 10 seconds later - works - straight away - on all browsers  nothing more to do   Please try to make me understand - what possible justification do you have for wanting me to do it any other way

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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div s and CSS positioning allow a more flexible design  leading to easier modification and templating of your web pages   That said  if you aren t interested in the flexibility then using a table rather than some divs that are morphed into a table by CSS is definitely a lot easier and quicker to knock up  I tend to use tables when knocking up a design just to get it looking right that bit quicker

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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If you re supporting the table angle on this find a site with tables and then get yourself a screenreader - set off the screen reader and turn off your monitor   Then try it with a nice semantically correct div layout site   You ll see the difference   Tables aren t evil if the data in them is tabular not to layout the page

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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Also  don t forget  tables don t quite render well on mobile browsers  Sure  the iPhone has a kick-ass browser but everyone doesn t have an iPhone  Table rendering can be peanuts for modern browsers  but it s a bunch of watermelons for mobile browsers    I have personally found that many people use too many  lt div gt  tags  but in moderation  it can be extremely clean and easy to read  You mention that folks have a harder time reading CSS than tables  in terms of  code  that maybe true  but in terms of reading content  view   source  it is a heck of a lot easier to understand the structure with stylesheets than with tables

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This isn t the definitive argument  by any means  but with CSS you can take the same markup and change the layout depending on medium  which is a nice advantage  For a print page you can quietly suppress navigation without having to create a printer-friendly page  for example

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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It s worth figuring out CSS and divs so the central content column loads and renders before the sidebar in a page layout   But if you are struggling to use floating divs to vertically align a logo with some sponsorship text  just use the table and move on with life   The Zen garden religion just doesn t give much bang for the buck   The idea of separating content from presentation is to partition the application so different kinds of work affect different blocks of code   This is actually about change management   But coding standards can only examine the present state of code in a superficial manner   The change log for an application that depends on coding standards to  separate content from presentation  will show a pattern of parallel changes across vertical silos   If a change to  content  is always accompanied by a change to  presentation   how successful is the partitioning   If you really want to partition your code productively  use Subversion and review your change logs   Then use the simplest coding techniques -- divs  tables  JavaScript  includes  functions  objects  continuations  whatever -- to structure the application so that the changes fit in a simple and comfortable manner

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Because it s HELL to maintain a site that uses tables  and takes a LOT longer to code  If you re scared of floating divs  go take a course in them  They re not difficult to understand and they re approximately 100 times more efficient and a million times less a pain in the ass  unless you don t understand them -- but hey  welcome to the world of computers    Anyone considering doing their layout with a table better not expect me to maintain it  It s the most ass-backwards way to render a website  Thank god we have a much better alternative now  I would NEVER go back   It s scary that some folks might not be aware of the time and energy benefits from creating a site using modern tools

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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This isn t really about whether  divs are better than tables for layout   Someone who understands CSS can duplicate any design using  layout tables  pretty straightforwardly  The real win is using HTML elements for what they are there for  The reason you would not use tables for non-tablular data is the same reason you don t store integers as character strings - technology works much more easily when you use it for the purpose for which it is desgined  If it was ever necessary to use tables for layout  because of browser shortcomings in the early 1990s  it certainly isn t now

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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Having had to work with a website that involved 6 layers of nested tables generated by some application  and having had it generate invalid HTML  it was in fact a 3 hour job to rectify it breaking for a minor change    This is of course the edge case  but table based design is unmaintainable  If you use css  you separate the style out so when fixing the HTML you have less to worry about breaking    Also  try this with JavaScript   Move a single table cell from one place to another place in another table  Rather complicated to perform where div span would just work copy-paste-wise     Does my boss care    If I were your boss  You would care     If you value your life

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In the past  screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion  To some extent  this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a  table  mode and a  layout  mode based on what it saw inside the table  This was often wrong  and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables  In any case  the large  often highly nested tables were  and to a large extent  are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader   The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested  The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element  and as such  are intended used to hold similar information  and lay it out on the screen for visual users  When a screen reader encounters a page  it often ignores any layout information  both CSS based  as well as html attribute based This isn t true for all screen readers  but for the most popular ones  like JAWS  Windows Eyes  and Orca for Linux it is    To this end  tabular data  that is to say data that makes logical sense to be ordered in two or more dimensions  with some sort of headers  is best placed in tables  and use divs to manage the layout of content on the page   another way to think of what  tabular data  is is to try to draw it in graph form   if you can t  it likely is not best represented in a table   Finally  with a table-based layout  in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page  highly nested tables are often used  This has two effects  1   Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables  the same code is sent over the network for each request  whereas a div css based layout pulls the css file over once  and then uses less wordy divs  2   Highly nested tables take much longer for the client s browser to render  leading to slightly slower load times   In both cases  the increase in  last mile  bandwidth  as well as much faster personal computers mitigates these factors  but none-the-less  they still are existing issues for many sites   With all of this in mind  as others have said  tables are easier  because they are more grid-oriented  allowing for less thought  If the site in question is not expected to be around long  or will not be maintained  it might make sense to do what is easiest  because it might be the most cost effective  However  if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals  or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time  spending the time up front to do things in a concise  accessible way may payoff more in the end

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Use tables when you need to ensure that elements need to remain in a specific physical relationship in the layout  For data  the table is generally the best layout element to use because you do not want your columns to wrap in an uxexpected ways and confuse the associations    One could also argue that non-data elements that must remain in a specific relationship should also be rendered in a table    Flexible css layouts are great for content that is suitable for mobile devices and large screens and printing and other display types  but sometimes  the content just has to be displayed in a very specific way and if that requires that screen readers cannot easily access it  it could very well be justified

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I was surprised to see some issues were not already covered  so here are my 2 cents  in addition to all the very valid points made earlier    1  CSS  amp  SEO   a  CSS used to have a very significant impact on SEO by allowing to position the content in the page wherever you want  A few years ago  Search Engines were giving a significant emphasis to  on-page  factors  Something at the top of the page was deemed more relevant to the page than something located at the bottom   Top of the page  for a spider meant  at the beginning of the code   Using CSS  you could organize your keyword-rich content at the beginning of the code  and still position it wherever you liked in the page  This is still somewhat relevant  but on page factors are less and less important for page ranking   b  When the layout is moved over to CSS  the HTML page is lighter and therefore loads faster for a search engine spider   spiders don t bother downloading external css files   Fast loading pages is an important ranking consideration for several search engines  including Google  c  SEO work often requires testing and changing things  which is much more convenient with a CSS based layout   2  Generated content   A table is considerably easier to generate programmically than the equivalent CSS layout   foreach   comment as  key  gt  value       echo   lt tr gt  lt td gt  key lt  td gt  lt td gt  value lt  td gt  lt  tr gt        Generating a table is simple and safe  It is self-contained and integrates well within any template  To do the same with CSS is considerably harder and may be of no benefit at all  hard to edit the CSS stylesheet on the flight  and adding the style inline is no different from using a table  content is not separated from layout    Further  when a table is generated  the content  in variables  is already separated from the layout  in code   making it as easy to modify   This is one reason why some very well designed websites  SO for instance  still use table layouts   Of course  if the results need to be acted upon through JavaScript  divs are worth the trouble     3  Quick conversion testing  When figuring out what works for a specific audience  it is useful to be able to change the layout in various ways to figure out what gets the best results  A CSS based layout makes things considerably easier   4  Different solutions for different problems  Layout tables are usually dissed because  everybody knows divs  amp  CSS  are the way to go    However the fact remains that tables are faster to create  easier to understand and are more robust than most CSS layouts   Yes  CSS can be as robust  but a quick look through the net on different browsers and screen resolutions shows it s not often the case   There are a lot of downsides to tables  including maintenance  lack of flexibility    but let s not throw the baby with the bath water  There are plenty of professional uses for a solution which is both quick and reliable    Some time ago  I had to rewrite a clean and simple CSS layout using tables because a significant portion of the users would be using an older version of IE with really bad support for CSS  I  for one  am sick and tired of the knee-jerk reaction  Oh noes  Tables for layout    As for the  it wasn t intended for that purpose and therefore you shouldn t use it this way  crowd  isn t that hypocrisy  What do you think of all the CSS tricks you have to use to get the darn thing working in most browsers  Were they meant for that purpose

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In terms of site maintenance and design overhauls while maintaining content  which happen all the time  especially in eCommerce    Content and design mashed up together via tables   updating both content and design   Content separate from design   updating design and maybe a little content   If I had it my way  I d keep my content in PHP generating XML  converted to markup in XSLT and designed with CSS and Javascript for the interaction   For the Java side of things  JSP to JSTL to generate the markup

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I think nobody cares how a website was designed implemented when it behaves great and it works fast   I use both  table  and  div   span  tags in HTML markup   Let me give you few arguments why I am choosing divs    for a table you have to write at least 3 tags  table  tr  td  thead  tbody   for a nice design  sometimes you have a lot of nested tables I like to have components on the page  I don t know how to explain exactly but will try  Suppose you need a logo and this have to be placed  just a small piece of it  over the next page content  Using tables you have to cut 2 images and put this into 2 different TDs  Using DIVs you can have a simple CSS to arange it as you want  Which solution do you like best  when more then 3 nested tables for doing something I am thinking to redesign it using DIVs   BUT I am still using tables for    tabular data content that is expanding self fast solutions  prototypes   because DIVs box model is different on each browser  because many generators are using tables  etc

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WYSIWYG    I can t for the life of me get our designers to stop using nested DIVS and styled by elementID css in templates that are supposed to be used by clients in CMS projects   That s the whole point of a WYSIWYG online editor   You are controlling both the content and the layout at the same time  There is no separation at all in the first place in this scenario   Positioned and styled Divs in some external stylesheet are anathema to the whole idea of WYSIWYG editing   Tables can be seen  rows inserted  cells combined and so on   Good luck trying this with divs in a way that doesn t frustrate users

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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As per my knowledge on tables  if too many tables are nested  there is a great overhead to browser  in rendering the page    1 - The browser has wait to render the final view wait until the entire table gets loaded   2 - The algorithm to render the table is expensive and is not in a single go  The browser  as and when  gets the contents  will try to render calculating the content width and height  So  if you are having nested tables  say  the browser has received the first row and the 1st cell is having large amount of content and width and height not defined  it will calculate the width and will render the first row  In the mean while it gets the 2nd row will cell 2 having loads of content  It will now calculate the width for 2nd row cells   What about the first   It will calculate widths recursively  That s bad at client side   To site an example  As a programmer  you ll optimize stuffs such as time to fetch data  optimized data structures and etc  You optimize things to complete on server side  say in2 secs  but end user in getting the final view in 8 secs   What is wrong here        1  May be network is slow  What if network is fine   What is network is delivering the contents in next 1 sec   Where is this extra 5 secs getting consumed   Thing to worry about-- The browser might be taking lot of time in estimating and rendering the tables   How to optimize tables   If you re using tables  I would suggest  always define width for the cells  This does not guarantees that browser will blindly take this widths only  but would be of great help to browser in deciding the initial widths   But  at the end  div are great way as CSS can be cached by the browser  while table aren t cached

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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A huge issue for me is that tables  especially nested tables  take much longer to render than a properly layed out css implementation   You can make css just as slow    All browsers render the css faster because each div is a seperate element  so a screen can be loading as the user is reading   For huge data sets  etc    I ve used css instead of tables in that instance not even dealing with layout   A nested table  tables inside of cells  etc  will not render to the browser window until the last   table  is found   Even worse - a poorly defined table will somtimes not even render   Or when it does  things misbehave    not colspanning properly with  TD  s etc    I use tables for most things  but when it comes to large data and the desire to have a screen render quickly for an end-user - I try my best to utilize what CSS has to offer

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Tables used as pure layout does pose some problems for accessability  that I ve heard   But I understand what is being asked here that somehow you re crippling the web by using a table to ensure correct alignment of something on your page   I ve heard people argue before that FORM labels and inputs are  in fact  data and that they should be allowed into tables   The argument that using a table to make sure a few elements line up correctly causes this massive increase in code tend to include examples of how a single DIV can meet all their needs  They don t always include the 10 lines of CSS and special browser hacks they had to write for IE5 IE5 5 IE6 IE7     I think it remains about using balance in your design  Tables are in the toolbox  just remember what they are for

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Here s my programmer s answer from a simliar thread  Semantics 101  First take a look at this code and think about what s wrong here     class car       int wheels   4      string engine     car mybike   new car    mybike wheels   2  mybike engine   null    The problem  of course  is that a bike is not a car  The car class is an inappropriate class for the bike instance  The code is error-free  but is semantically incorrect  It reflects poorly on the programmer   Semantics 102  Now apply this to document markup  If your document needs to present tabular data  then the appropriate tag would be  lt table gt   If you place navigation into a table however  then you re misusing the intended purpose of the  lt table gt  element  In the second case  you re not presenting tabular data -- you re  mis using the  lt table gt  element to achieve a presentational goal   Conclusion  Will visitors notice  No  Does your boss care  Maybe  Do we sometimes cut corners as programmers   Sure  But should we   No  Who benefits if you use semantic markup  You -- and your professional reputation  Now go and do the right thing

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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The whole idea around semantic markup is the separation of markup and presentation  which includes layout   Div s aren t replacing tables  they have their own use in separating content into blocks of related content       When you don t have the skills and are relying on tables  you ll often have to separate your content in to cells in order to get the desired layout  but you wont need to touch the markup to achieve presentation when using semantic markup  This is really important when the markup is being generated rather than static pages   Developers need to stop providing markup that implies layout so that those of us who do have the skills to present content can get on with our jobs  and developers don t have to come back to their code to make changes when presentation needs change

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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To respond to the  tables are slower  argument - you re thinking rendering time  which is the wrong metric   Very often  developers will write out a huge table to do the entire layout for a page - which adds significantly to the size of the page to be downloaded   Like it or not  there s still a ton of dialup users out there   See also  overusing ViewState

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Tables are good for HTML that you re throwing together for something simple or temporary   If you re building a large-scale website  you should go with divs and CSS  since it will be easier to maintain over time as your website changes

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CSS layouts are generally much better for accessibility  provided the content comes in a natural order and makes sense without a stylesheet   And it s not just screen readers that struggle with table-based layouts  they also make it much harder for mobile browsers to render a page properly   Also  with a div-based layout you can very easily do cool things with a print stylesheet such as excluding headers  footers and navigation from printed pages - I think it would be impossible  or at least much more difficult  to do that with a table-based layout   If you re doubting that separation of content from layout is easier with divs than with tables  take a look at the div-based HTML at CSS Zen Garden  see how changing the stylesheets can drastically change the layout  and think about whether you could achieve the same variety of layouts if the HTML was table based     If you re doing a table-based layout  you re unlikely to be using CSS to control all the spacing and padding in the cells  if you were  you d almost certainly find it easier to use floating divs etc  in the first place    Without using CSS to control all that  and because of the fact that tables specify the left-to-right and top-to bottom order of things in the HTML  tables tend to mean that your layout becomes very much fixed in the HTML   Realistically I think it s very hard to completely change the layout of a div-and-CSS-based design without changing the divs a bit   However  with a div-and-CSS-based layout it s much easier to tweak things like the spacing between various blocks  and their relative sizes

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I m going to go through your arguments one after another and try to show the errors in them       It s good to separate content from layout   But this is a fallacious argument  Clich   Thinking    It s not fallacious at all because HTML was designed intentionally  Misuse of an element might not be completely out of question  after all  new idioms have developed in other languages  as well  but possible negative implications have to be counterbalanced  Additionally  even if there were no arguments against misusing the  lt table gt  element today  there might be tomorrow because of the way browser vendors apply special treatment to the element  After all  they know that     lt table gt  elements are for tabular data only    and might use this fact to improve the rendering engine  in the process subtly changing how  lt table gt s behave  and thus breaking cases where it was previously misused      So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Depends  Is your boss pointy-haired  Then he might not care  If she s competent  then she will care  because the users will      Perhaps me or my fellow developers who have to maintain a web page care    Is a table less maintainable  I think using a table is easier than using divs and css    The majority of professional web developers seem to oppose you citation needed   That tables are in fact less maintainable should be obvious  Using tables for layout means that changing the corporate layout will in fact mean changing every single page  This can be very expensive  On the other hand  judicious use of semantically meaningful HTML combined with CSS might confine such changes to the CSS and the pictures used      By the way    why is using a div or a span good separation of content from layout and a table not  Getting a good layout with only divs often requires a lot of nested divs    Deeply nested  lt div gt s are an anti-pattern just as table layouts  Good web designers don t need many of them  On the other hand  even such deep-nested divs don t have many of the problems of table layouts  In fact  they can even contribute to a semantic structure by logically dividing the content in parts      Readability of the code   I think it s the other way around  Most people understand html  little understand css  It s simpler       Most people    don t matter  Professionals matter  For professionals  table layouts create many more problems than HTML   CSS  This is like saying I shouldn t use GVim or Emacs because Notepad is simpler for most people  Or that I shouldn t use LaTeX because MS Word is simpler for most people      It s better for SEO not to use tables   I don t know if this is true and wouldn t use this as an argument but it would be logical  Search engines search for relevant data  While tabular data could of course be relevant  it s rarely what users search for  Users search for terms used in the page title or similarly prominent positions  It would therefore be logical to exclude tabular content from filtering and thus cutting the processing time  and costs   by a large factor      Tables are slower    An extra tbody element has to be inserted  This is peanuts for modern web browsers    The extra element has got nothing to do with tables being slower  On the other hand  the layout algorithm for tables is much harder  the browser often has to wait for the whole table to load before it can begin to layout the content  Additionally  caching of the layout won t work  CSS can easily be cached   All this has been mentioned before       Show me some benchmarks where the use of a table significantly slows down a page    Unfortunately  I don t have any benchmark data  I would be interested in it myself because it s right that this argument lacks a certain scientific rigour      Most web sites that need an upgrade need new content  html  as well  Scenarios where a new version of a web site only needs a new css file are not very likely    Not at all  I ve worked on several cases where changing the design was simplified by a separation of content and design  It s often still necessary to change some HTML code but the changes will always be much more confined  Additionally  design changes must on occasion be made dynamically  Consider template engines such as the one used by the WordPress blogging system  Table layouts would literally kill this system  I ve worked on a similar case for a commercial software  Being able to change the design without changing the HTML code was one of the business requirements   Another thing  Table layout makes automated parsing of websites  screen scraping  much harder  This might sound trivial because  after all  who does it  I was surprised myself  Screen scraping can help a lot if the service in question doesn t offer a WebService alternative to access its data  I m working in bioinformatics where this is a sad reality  Modern web techniques and WebServices have not reached most developers and often  screen scraping is the only way to automate the process of getting data  No wonder that many biologists still perform such tasks manually  For thousands of data sets

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Tools that use table layouts can become extraordinarily heavy due to the amount of code required to create the layout  SAP s Netweaver Portal by default uses TABLE to layout their pages   The production SAP portal at my current gig has a home page whose HTML weighs over 60K and goes seven tables deep  three times within the page   Add in the Javascript  the misuse of 16 iframes with similar table issues inside of them  overly heavy CSS etc  and the page weighs over 5MB     Taking the time to lower the page weight so you can use your bandwidth to do engaging activities with users is worth the effort

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No arguments in DIVs favour from me    I d say   If the shoe fits  wear it   It s worth noting that it s difficult if not impossible to find a good DIV CSS method of rendering contents in two or three columns  that is consistent on all browsers  and still looks just the way I intended   This tips the balance a bit towards tables in most of my layouts  and altough I feel guilty of using them  dunny why  people just say it s bad so I try to listen to them   in the end   the pragmatic view is it s just easier and faster  for me to use TABLEs  I m not being payed by the hour  so tables are cheaper for me

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Layout flexibility Imagine you re making a page with a large number of thumbnails  DIVs  If you put each thumbnail in a DIV  floated left  maybe 10 of them fit on a row  Make the window narrower  and BAM - it s 6 on a row  or 2  or however many fit  TABLE  You have to explicitly say how many cells are in a row  If the window is too narrow  the user has to scroll horizontally   Maintainability Same situation as above  Now you want to add three thumbnails to the third row  DIVs  Add them in  The layout will automatically adjust  TABLE  Paste the new cells into the third row  Oops  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row and put them on the fourth row  Now there are too many items there  Cut some from that row     etc   Of course  if you re generating the rows and cells with server-side scripting  this probably won t be an issue

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Surely the OP was a bit of a wind up  the arguments seem so week and easily countered     Web pages are the domain of web developers  and if they say div  amp  CSS is better than tables that s good enough for me   If a layout is achieved by tables generated by a server app  then a new layout means changes to the app  a rebuild and redelpoy of the application  as apposed to just changes to a css file   Plus  accessibility   Tables used for layout make a website inaccessible  so don t use them   It s a no brainer  not to mention illegal

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Google gives very low priority to text content contained inside a table  I was giving some SEO advice to a local charity  In examining their website it was using tables to layout the site  Looking at each page  no matter what words - or combination of words - from their pages I used in the Google search box the pages would not come up in any of the top search pages   However  by specifying the site in the search the page was returned   One page was well copy written by normal standards to produce a good result in a search but still it didn t appear in any of the first pages of search results returned   Note this text was within a table   I then spotted a section of text on the pages which was in a div rather than a table  We put a few of the words from that div in the search engine  Result  It came in at No 2 in the search result

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I have found that even with the best planning divs come up short in several respects   For instance  there is no way with divs to have a bottom bar that always sits at the bottom of the browser  even when the rest of the content does not go to the bottom of the browser   Also  you cannot elegantly do anything better than three columns  and you cannot have columns that grow and shrink according the the width of their content   In the end  we try to use divs first   However  we will not limit our html designs based on some religious content vs layout ideal

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I guess it s true that using the table element for layout has little to do with tabular data  So what  Does my boss care  Do my users care    Google and other automated systems do care  and they re just as important in many situations  Semantic code is easier for a non-intelligent system to parse and process

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Obvious answer  See CSS Zen Garden  If you tell me that you can easily do the same with a table-based layout  remember - the HTML isn t changing  then by all means use tables for layout   Two other important things are accessibility and SEO   Both care about in what order information is presented  You cannot easily present your navigation at the top of the page if your table-based layout puts it in the 3rd cell of the 2nd row of the 2nd nested table on the page   So your answers are maintainability  accessibility and SEO   Don t be lazy  Do things the right and proper way even if they are a bit harder to learn

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I ve had to do sites in both of those ways  plus a third  the dreaded  hybrid  layout with tables  divs and styles  Divs CSS wins  handily   You d have to nest divs three deep to match the code weight of just one table cell  right off the bat  That effect scales with nested tables   I d also prefer to make one layout change  vs one change for every page in my site    I have full control over every aspect of presentation with divs css  Tables mess that up in hideous ways  especially in IE  a browser which I have never yet had the option not to support   My time for maintenance or redesign of a divs css website is a fraction of what it would be in tables   Finally  I can innovate multiple  switchable layouts with CSS and virtually any scripting language  That would be impossible for me with tables   Good luck with your ROI as you make that decision

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See this duplicate question     One item you re forgetting there is accessibility   Table-based layouts don t translate as well if you need to use a screen reader  for example   And if you do work for the government  supporting accessible browsers like screen readers may be required   I also think you underestimate the impact of some of the things you mentioned in the question   For example  if you are both the designer and the programmer  you may not have a full appreciation of how well it separates presentation from content   But once you get into a shop where they are two distinct roles the advantages start to become clearer   If you know what you re doing and have good tools  CSS really does have significant advantages over tables for layout   And while each item by itself may not justify abandoning tables  taken together it s generally worth it

[html] Why not use tables for layout in HTML?

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