31 replies to this topic

[syndrome]

Ok ive been hearing this quite a lot now, everybody says its advantages and iv never heard anything bad about it. Iv also heard you can use it instead of tables,

please can some of you tell me what you can do with CSS advantages and disadvantages

Thanks

[Jaymz]

WELL, I recently jumped on the CSS bandwagon, I'll share my experiences anyway.

I have found that CSS is much easier to use if you want to stick to standards, as there are a lot of table things that aren't valid. Second, tables were designed for tabular data, which layouts aren't

I've also found that with CSS the pages load faster, because there is a lot less information you have to specify than with tables, and my coding looks a lot neater.

However, if you're planning on having visitors using Internet Explorer, you will run into some problems because of IE's horrible CSS support. However, this is rumored to be fixed in IE7. A bit of a googling will usually find the solution to wonky IE displays, and there are thousands of tricks out there to make IE work the way you want.

Also, it's a lot easier to read your coding later because instead of a mess of table data, there's just

<div id="container">
<div id="content">Content here</div>
</div>

Obviously that is a bit simplified, but you get the gist And it just sounds sexy to say "I didn't use tables in this"

[adam123]

There's hundreds of different advantages to using CSS over tables. It's mainly because, as James said, tables are used for tabular data and not for designs. CSS gives you unlimited control over the look and feel of your site. Especially since tags such as font have been deprecated and are no longer supported in any way by W3C.

With CSS you can modify every element on a page including scroll bars (IE only), h1 tags, h2 tags, hr tags, the body tag etc.
CSS also come with some advanced features such as inheritance. For example you can set a larger font size for <h1> tags that are nested inside of <p> tags, whereas all the other h1s will stay the same.

You should jump on the "CSS Bandwagon" as quickly as you can, soon tables are gonna be wiped into oblivion, never to be seen again (hopefully).

This book was absolutely brilliant for me when I started learning CSS at the beginning of this year.

[Jaymz]

You should jump on the "CSS Bandwagon" as quickly as you can, soon tables are gonna be wiped into oblivion, never to be seen again (hopefully).

And with any luck iFrames will go with them

[adam123]

You should jump on the "CSS Bandwagon" as quickly as you can, soon tables are gonna be wiped into oblivion, never to be seen again (hopefully).

And with any luck iFrames will go with them

We can only hope...

[syndrome]

ye iv just blammed iframes myself thanks for the info guys, il look on p2l for some tuts on intros to css and stuff

[syndrome]

1 more question can u use CSS with sliced images on photoshop like with html?

sorry about the double post, but you wouldnt have seen it otherwise. forgive me.

[Jaymz]

Why yes you can The once you get your DIVs placed where you want you can put whatever you like inside of them, images, text, bolona sandwiches... your choice

[syndrome]

lovely, thanks Jaymz, and adam.
god bless you

[Apache]

Just to show you what CSS can do... Spoono is CSS

[syndrome]

woah
im definitely learnin now

[Phrozt]

check out http://www.dickey-john.com

Now, go to File > Save as and save the page. Open it up again... without its CSS file.

Also, check out http://www.matsutaniamerica.com . Do the same thing w/that. For an added bonus, print any page out. Don't copy and paste it into a text document.. just Go to File > Print on any page.

CSS ftw

Edited by Phrozt, 18 July 2005 - 04:48 PM.

[Yertsivad]

Here is a cool webpage that uses CSS well (I don't think that there is a table in the entire site). CSS page You can change the fonts with the three buttons at the top right, not incredibly useful, but you can see the power and possibilities of CSS as well as in the cool scrolling transparency thing.

THE place to learn CSS (no offense to P2L) is W3 Schools. There is an easy way to experment quickly with CSS in the examples.

Edited by Yertsivad, 06 July 2005 - 10:22 AM.

[Ki's Empire]

I have found CSS very useful in the past, actually that reminds me, I have to switch the image ready table layout slices to div layers before I re-launch my site.

KIWI

[Sodlier_Pyro]

Actually I'd like to thank you adam..123, I'm going to buy the book you posted here. Thanks m8!

[Jamie Huskisson]

i'd just like to say... css is practically the same as tables... the only thing thats changed is the way its coded, nothing about accessibility, viewability or pretty much anything on the user side is changed...

the new css/xhtml "bandwagon" is based entirely on the presumption that you want to change your layout constantly once its finished. 99% of sites don't changed once they are laid out.. with the rare exception of sites like the BBC, who change the layout of content but rarely change the look of the site

that being said, your site will validate either way, css/xhtml just takes alot more skill to do, which is why alot of people are doing it, as there are tonnes of ready made editors for tables at the moment and no proper editors for css

[greg]

I disagree with Jay. CSS isn't just a replacement of tables. It's an entirely different thing . CSS is used to stylize a website, while tables are used for organizing data. They are two different things, meant for two different purposes.

Using tables for layouts is like using Photoshop for vector images, or Illustrator for rasterized images. Sure, it can be done, but you won't be able to achieve as much as you would if you used the proper tool.

[Jaymz]

I've heard it said over and over again, and now I'm repeating it Tables are for tabular data, not layouts

[Chip]

soldier_pyro, while you're waiting to buy the book, you can view the first 3 chapters here http://www.sitepoint.../htmlutopia.pdf

Edited by Chip, 06 July 2005 - 06:09 PM.

[Sodlier_Pyro]

Thanks man! I already have the book and I'm on chapter 5. I'm doing well with it so far and I'm expirmenting with the layout the they have in the end. I can't wait to convert my site!