To get started, let’s look at what CSS is and why it’s so important to modern web design. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and was introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium in late 1996 with the goal of separating web page content (written copy, images, multimedia, etc.) from presentation (fonts, colors, layout, page structure, etc.) .) .).). Another main goal of CSS is to enhance and improve web accessibility. Before the introduction of CSS, the HTML markup of a web page defined both the content and the presentation.
CSS is usually contained in a separate file from an HTML web page. This is why CSS files are often called “external style sheets”. When an HTML page or other type of web page such as .aspx, .php, or .cgi is loaded, the page calls the external CSS file and reads all presentation properties defined in the file. The CSS file tells the HTML page how to lay out the content of the website and, in the case of tableless web design, where to place it. With CSS, a web designer can set rules for the presentation of individual web pages or an entire site.
Traditionally, web pages were created using HTML with tables to lay out the structure and content of the page. These cell-based tables are very similar in shape to a table found in Microsoft Excel and Word. One advantage of using tables is that, when used correctly, it closely mimics the standard page layout found in print media, such as newspaper or magazine articles. However, as web technology has advanced and become more dynamic, a new era of design has emerged with greater possibilities. A new approach to designing and styling web pages was created to break the restrictions of structured table layouts. This approach is called CSS tableless layout.
It’s important to understand that traditional table-based layout and CSS are not mutually exclusive; Web developers often use CSS through table-based design to control the properties of tables and other elements on their web pages. On the other hand, tableless design would not be possible without CSS. However, instead of using tables, a tableless designer uses what is known as a “DIV”, which is short for “division”. The DIV name is also derived from HTML
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<div> that forms the DIV in the HTML. A DIV is a box, or more accurately described as a container, where web content is stored. Similar to the table-based layout where the content is contained within the table cells, with DIVs the content is housed within DIV containers. The properties of a DIV are defined within the CSS file. CSS tells the DIV where to appear on a web page, its width and height dimensions, and its appearance, ie whether it should have a background color or an image, a border, or even whether it should be visible. There is a wide variety of other CSS properties that can be applied to DIVs. Instead of being limited by the rigid grid structure of tables, DIVs can be made any size and placed anywhere on a web page, even layered on top of each other. This is what makes CSS’s tableless DIV layout so powerful. The layout and design possibilities are essentially endless. Although the use of tables for website page structure is deprecated, tables still play an important role in tableless CSS layout. Tables should be used to structure and present tabular data. One best practice example of using a table in your design that many novice tableless CSS designers overlook is when creating a web form, for example a company information request form. Sure, it may be obvious that using tables is better for presenting data from a database or the results of a form submission, but when designing the form itself, tables will save you a lot of time. Therefore, it is important for CSS tableless designers to understand how to use tables and when they are a better and more efficient solution than strictly using CSS tableless design. It has been a hot topic for some web designers as to which method is better, table based layouts or CSS tableless layouts. Let’s take a look at 9 reasons why tableless CSS layout works better than traditional table-based web design and why it has become the preferred method of modern web design: 1. Tableless CSS layout allows designers to web the ability to make more complex layouts and layouts when producing a website. With table-based layouts, web designers are limited to creating layouts that can be rigid, inflexible, and grid-based. Tableless CSS-based layouts, on the other hand, allow the designer to be as creative as his imagination allows him to be. 2. If your intention is to improve the search engine rankings for your website, then a tableless CSS layout will help your cause. Tableless CSS layouts result in smaller web page file sizes, a reduction in code-to-content ratio, and the elimination of extraneous “junk” HTML markup used by many table-based web editors. This makes it easier for search engine spiders to crawl your website and results in more favorable search engine rankings. 3. By using CSS style sheets, it is extremely easy to maintain visual consistency throughout your website. When using table-based layouts, it’s easy to lose this consistency because the style, layout, and layout of each web page is often hard-coded individually on each page. If you need to make a change to your website on all pages, you’ll need to change the code on each individual page. With CSS, all pages can use the same CSS document for their layout and styling. If you change a property in the CSS file, the changes will be instantly reflected on all pages of your website. 4. Updating a CSS tableless website is easier and less time consuming than table based layouts. For example, if you want to change the font sizes and colors within your website, your external CSS file can simply be opened and make the necessary changes without making any changes to each and every page of your website. To change the look of your website for special or seasonal promotions, the entire “look and feel” of the website can be completely changed simply by changing the properties in the CSS file without touching the HTML code of the web page. 5. Redesigning a website using tableless CSS is faster and less expensive than redesigning a website using a table-based design. This is because tableless CSS layouts have separate files for content and visual data, including web page structure, while table-based layouts combine layout information with content in the same file. By separating visual data and design from content, a web designer can quickly and easily make changes to the entire website. 6. Table web page layouts rely heavily on the use of .gif spacers, a transparent image used to control white space within a table-based web page. Having to create a series of custom-sized transparent images to organize your web page layout creates messy code and a rigid page structure that can’t be easily changed. CSS’s tableless layout eliminates this problem by using DIVs instead of tables that can be easily resized, placed anywhere on a page, or even manipulated dynamically through the use of scripting languages. 7. A common benefit of using CSS tableless web design is a reduction in web page file size, which equates to your web pages loading faster. Compared to a layout without CSS tables, a table-based web page typically takes twice as long to load. Also, the amount of bandwidth you’ll save with a tableless CSS-based approach, especially as your website grows in size, can be enormous, resulting in a faster overall loading website and saving you money. . 8. Using CSS tableless web design makes your website more accessible by making it easier for users to consume content and navigate the site. It will also do a much better job of accommodating people with visual impairments and other disabilities. Screen readers, Braille devices, and special browsers for disabled users have fewer problems with tableless layouts because they can control the CSS file and increase font sizes, or even modify the structure of the web page to make it easier to use. to read. 9. CSS allows the web designer to attach multiple style sheets for different types of media. If a potential customer visits your site with their Blackberry or mobile phone, a different CSS style sheet is called up which dictates a completely different layout and style for your entire website and formats it for optimal display on the device’s small screen. . The CSS tableless layout is an excellent method for developing modern websites and offers many valuable advantages over the traditional table-based layout. Using the tableless CSS layout will provide your website visitors with better usability and accessibility, faster page load times with greater and more elegant design possibilities. For the web developer and website owner, websites without CSS tables are easier and less expensive to redesign, update, and maintain. When given the choice, the tableless CSS layout will be the best option for most of today’s website designs.</div>
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