Div Tags or Tables?

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Cascading Style Sheets, level 1
W3C Recommendation 17 Dec 1996, revised 11 Apr 2008

http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-CSS1-20080411/

Tables should not be used purely as a means to layout document content as this may present problems when rendering to non-visual media. Additionally, when used with graphics, these tables may force users to scroll horizontally to view a table designed on a system with a larger display. To minimize these problems, authors should use style sheets to control layout rather than tables.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.1
i.e. Your table design will break the user's browser

Ok, so beyond the specification thing here's the problem I see,
You guys that use WYSWYG editors and/or tables who don't want to learn CSS keep nesting tables to force the browser to do what you want it do.

This adds to the overall web page file size where the file size could be better used to add important stuff like content!

Tables "stall" the rendering of a page because the browser has to read all your table coding to figure out how to create the table(s) you built. News flash: not everyone has the latest greatest computer or web connection. And even if the visitors do have newer stuff, depending on how many tables you used, what's running on their computer at the same time and how fast their connection is at the specific moment they visited your site your page can still hesitate when rendering. Oh, there's the server load too that can effect delivery of your web pages whether you use tables or not. Anything you can do to improve the rendering of your pages is a good thing.

Here, Learn to Design HTML Tables with Less Code, I show readers condensing your table coding using colspan and rowspan alone in the simple example saved 10% on that table. Now think about all the nested tables people use plus inline cell formatting (which most has been deprecated since HTML 4.01). That not only is a lot of coding to maintain it takes away from the content "space" available on a good file size for a web page.

Dispite the fact the WYSWYG editors and other programs let you create web pages, the web is not print! You have no control over the visitor's machine, their settings, their connection, etc. (Well, you might find programming to force the issue and end up making the visitor leave in disgust 'cause you screwed with their settings ).

[Aneesh]

Div layout is better than table layout when it comes for web pages. Especially at the time of making some modifications, you will find div tag is easier than table tag. Div gives a professional look to your site when compare with using table.

[findyourartschool]

I'll suggest for using div as if you want to alter your design later then its easy to work with div then as compared to tables.

[stgibson]

I suppose div is latest and best. But If you have to do tabular presentation, you can use table, but for designing purpose all have to use Div.

[TailoredVPS]

Div is way easier to design with than a table. Divs can be modified really easy via CSS and it is also fast to change a DIV tag as well. Not to mention tables also take lots of room in the code and it can get messy.

[JoseAldo]

Depends on what you're doing but table-less CSS IMHO looks better and gives you a lot more control of your layout.

[troyfawkes]

The question is misleading.

HTML is a mark up language. It's not a design language. CSS is.

The best practice for marking up a website is to create the content first and then wrap it in appropriate tags. If for some reason you can't get the right style using this perfect mark up combined with CSS, then you add divs. But they're still wrong.

Tables should never be used for layout - they're for tabular data. Just like the bold tag shouldn't be used to make headings - you use heading tags for that.

[davbala]

i never used tables in my life >
div tags are best according to my experience

[Gardenia~]

Tables can, of course, be used for layouts, however they are certainly not the best choice. HTML is for content and CSS is for presentation for a reason. Why must you dig through HTML whenever you want to change a layout? With CSS you can link to an external stylesheet and make the HTML document shorter as well. And what if you want to make a table for other purposes within the layout? If you tweaked the stylesheet for the layout table, it'd look really odd. Tables are for people that are new to the game, nothing else.

[briandaman]

Div tags are better. They require less code and you can control everything about them all in your CSS file. So, go with Div tags and use floats in order to arrange them left or right.

[winelady]

Divs for layout, tables for real tables. Divs load faster and are easier to handle. Furthermore the float function allows better layout options.

[mathman]

Divs are by far the easiest and most powerful way to format html pages. Use tables only for small pieces of data.

[rlawris]

Originally Posted by denysaputra

Hi, according my experience, div layout is more easily. But tables layouts also not too confused.

if you're using html editor like dreamweaver, layouts using tables are like eating peanuts

[Brazzell Marketing]

Originally Posted by rlawris

if you're using html editor like dreamweaver, layouts using tables are like eating peanuts

Tasty and salty?

[dbwebhosting]

Div tags are much better for the layout of web pages.

[Brazzell Marketing]

I was surfing the web yesterday looking for design ideas to steal (ahem, "inspire me"). I found this well-designed site. As I poked around I found a large page where the designer, obviously an expert in CSS, used a good old fashioned table, with table borders and everything. It gave me a nostalgic warm and fuzzy.

http://vitalcarerehab.com/index.php?...=88&Itemid=160

[enkonversations]

Div is best but it is difficult to make as compare to table because of Dreamweaver it is very easy to make website in Table.

Div is little bit complicated.

[Brazzell Marketing]

Originally Posted by enkonversations

Div is best but it is difficult to make as compare to table because of Dreamweaver it is very easy to make website in Table.

Div is little bit complicated.

I agree somewhat. Dreamweaver CS3 makes divs a little more difficult by not always showing them correctly in the preview mode. Dreamweaver CS3 will show my divisions positioned in unexpected ways, but when I test them in Chrome, IE, and Firefox, they all look great. In other ways, CS3 makes divs very easy. I have CS4 and CS5 in my office, but I haven't tested this on them.

[simplyamazing12]

Div Tags and Tables are old technology. CSS is the new and more current standard that is being used currently. You should definitely learn it if you haven't already.

[NewDeveloper]

i agree to some extent, though i would like to add that if u use CSS3 in conjunction with DIV tags, it has a beauty of its own.