I wouldn't label people who recommend divs over tables "Absolute Purists."
This implies an almost "religious" connotation to the practice. In fact, the
use of divs over tables is very practical. In terms of layout, divs and CSS
are much more flexible and extensible. A table locks the contained elements
into a specifically-ordered tabular format, while proper use of divs allows
content to be rearranged at will. As web sites generally evolve in terms of
layout, the ability to change layout without changing content is highly
cost-effective. It also enables the same XHTML element layout to be reused
in many applications without change, if structured correctly. By combining
div layout with ASP.Net Controls, such as substituting Panels for divs, you
further extend the flexibility and extensibility of the model.
I am not "averse" to using tables within pages, as they are clearly superior
for the display of data with a tabular and fixed format. Displaying database
data in a grid layout, for example, is probably best done with tables.
However, using tables for the page layout of entire pages is short-sighted,
in terms of design.
See
http://csszengarden.com for some startling examples of the flexibility
and power of CSS with div layout.
--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Printing Components, Email Components,
FTP Client Classes, Enhanced Data Controls, much more.
DSI PrintManager, Miradyne Component Libraries:
http://www.miradyne.net
"Ray Costanzo" <my first name at lane 34 dot commercialwrote in message
news:91345E50-4386-4708-A353-5E6093E8F19C@microsoft.com...
Quote:
Hi Ed,
>
Absolute purists will say that using tables for layout control is a bad
idea. These are CSS enthusiasts who, in my opinion, are a bit too
idealistic. Strictly speaking, using a table may not make sense for
controlling layout, but if it makes your site appear the way that you need
it to in all the browsers you intend to support, then use it.
>
As far as controlling how things are handled when the browser is resized,
there are some fundamentals to learn about CSS or inline html tag
attributes. Read some of the things here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search
>
Ray at work
>
>
"Ed Sproull [MSFT]" <edwards@online.microsoft.comwrote in message
news:037CE5A8-CFE5-413B-B27A-E0E5FBC06D50@microsoft.com...
Quote:
>First I'm pretty new to ASP.NET and I'm having a simple problem. I have
>small website with a header, sidebar and the the content. I want my
>content to appear beside my sidebar which seems to be a pretty standard
>layout. However when ever I resize my browser the content resizes below
>the sidebar.
>>
>I've been digging through example websites can't seem to stop this
>behaviour. I had one person suggest Tables but I see a few posts that
>say you shouldn't use Tables with ASP.NET.
>>
>All I need is the topic to go look at. Any suggestions greatly
>appriciated.
>>
>Ed
>
