How can I explain to a programmer that CSS positioning has many benefits over table based layouts?

Posted by Pat on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Pat
Published on 2010-04-28T20:15:05Z Indexed on 2010/04/28 20:17 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 270

Filed under:

tables

|

css-positioning

|

seo

|

accessibility

I have a friend who wishes to work as a freelance web developer, but insists that tables are the way forwards for layouts.

Several points he maintains in favour of tables:

1> This is what was taught at the beginning of 10 years of programming & computer science degrees.

2> Large companies use tables to achieve 'technical' things.

3> It saves time

I have coded him some examples of CSS exactly matching table based layouts, and provided many links to articles explaining SEO and accessibility benefits.

From the perspective of a client, I have been explaining to him that I wouldn't hire someone using outdated methods as their main strategy for layout. As he is my friend and I wish him every success, I believe it is important for him to gain the best start when pitching for work.

The question again: How can I explain to a programmer that CSS positioning has many benefits over table based layouts?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about tables

javascript to print all tables and individual tables

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am retrieving values from a database and displaying it a table using php. Each table is stored inside a div tag. <div id="print"> table content 1 </div> <div id="print"> table content 2 </div> .................. Can some one please suggest a javascript where i can get… >>> More
retrieve data from multiple tables referencing some tables in mysql

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
i have 10 tables have innoDB engine 1. one is state_table which attributes are state_id and state_name 2. another table city_table which attributes are city_id and city_name 3. one more table permit_table which attribute is p_id above city_id,state_id and permit_id is references to rest of 7… >>> More
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Inserting into tables from child procedure which returned multiple tables

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I've got a child procedure which returns more than table. child: PROCEDURE KevinGetTwoTables AS BEGIN SELECT 'ABC' Alpha, '123' Numeric SELECT 'BBB' Alpha, '123' Numeric1, '555' Numeric2 END example: PROCEDURE KevinTesting AS BEGIN DECLARE @Table1 TABLE ( Alpha varchar(50)… >>> More
retrive data from multiple tables referencing some tables in mysql

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
i have 10 tables have innoDB engine 1. one is state_table which attributes are state_id and state_name 2. another table city_table which attributes are city_id and city_name 3. one more table permit_table which attribute is p_id above city_id,state_id and permit_id is references to rest of 7… >>> More
Chained Hash Tables vs. Open-Addressed Hash Tables

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Can somebody explain the main differences between (advantages / disadvantages) the two implementations? For a library, what implementation is recommended? >>> More

Related posts about css-positioning

Best tool for developing CSS positioning code

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What's the best way to develop CSS, in particular if it will play a role in formatting the page, etc. Is this best done by hand or with a particular editor? If by hand, how would you know the values needed to specify the positioning? If a tool is best, can VS2008/2010 do the job, or are there… >>> More
Difference in css-positioning in windows and linux

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a problem with rendering my html page by the same browsers in different OS. There are 3 spans and position of each span is corrected through css(position:relative). But I have found out that the page that looks correct in firefox under Linux, shows not right at the same firefox(3.5.7) under… >>> More
What can tables do that CSS positioning cannot?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I know there are various good arguments preferring css positioning over table-based layouts. What I'm wondering is whether the CSS model is complete (assuming a relatively modern browser) with respect to ALL of the capabilities of tables. Are there layouts that tables can achieve that are impossible… >>> More
CSS positioning breaks in Safari

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi all, i have a website in which i am trying to position (using CSS) a certain on the page. the is absolutely positioned and is located inside a relatively positioned paernt . on firefox and even IE it looks ok but on Safari, things get messy and it shows 5 pixels lower than it should. i have tried… >>> More
CSS positioning inside div

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am using a div with 2 elements inside and I want to position my 1st element to be vertically aligned top and 2nd element to the bottom of the div. The div is the right portion of my page and equal to the height of my main content. #right { float:right; width: 19%; background:#FF3300; … >>> More