Using tables in your php pages

Wow… I was just browsing through some other comments about tables and it seems as though 50% go with it and the other 50% don’t…

I guess my only concern at this point is the whole alignment thing and being able to make different layouts with ease. It seems that tables is easier to manage and allow more flexibility.

Does any one else agree or disagree?

I know I can use what ever I want but I honestly want to use what is best or is this just totally a matter of opinion?

CSS is so much more flexible that tables. Tables give you a very structured block format, but css allows for all different variations of positioning and properties. You can set so many different attributes to each different section (div/span) of a site using CSS.

CSS also tends to load faster and be more efficient. You can reuse a layout or specific attributes across all pages of your site, as CSS stylesheets are imported rather than being internal to each separate page.

As a rule of thumb, I tend to use CSS for all structural and positioning aspects of my sites. Anything you can do with tables can be recreated (most likely easier) using CSS. The only exception for me would be is if I want to display a “true” table of data, etc.

WordPress styles use all CSS for the page positioning anyway, so why not take a look at the theme source files and learn CSS? It is very handy to know.

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CSS is good but I don’t see any problem using tables. If you allow other users to register on your site and use some third party wysiwyg editor, many of them have html tables. It will definitely be easier for your users to create posts with tables rather then go to html source and mess with styles.

How does allowing posts to have tables relate to using tables for structuring a site’s design?

There is nothing wrong with tables for use with columnar data. That’s the reason the table element was added to HTML. But along the way, before CSS hit the scene, it was put to work on issues of design and layout.

Tables used for ‘look and feel’ might be considered “old school” in many circles, but that does not mean the <table> tag is verboten.

Kafkaesqui, I was just trying to say the same thing, that there’s nothing wrong in using tables.

“I was just trying to say the same thing, there’s nothing wrong in using tables.“

To make things clear, what I said was more like:

There’s nothing wrong in using tables for columnar data.

There are a few good (and on occasion, logically explained) reasons to *not* use tables for the design of a site. The OP’s concern I believe focuses on that point (and which by the way, is a good point to discuss).

I’m not that good at CSS design (that is why I like to use wordpress and its themes) so I couldn’t keep an in depth discussion on the topic. What I meant was, allowing users to create posts with tables on a site which otherwise is using CSS is essentially making tables part of the site design, and I don’t see any problem in doing so, as a mater of fact that’s what happens on my site.

Having a table in a post – doesn’t make that table “part of the design”; that’s nonsense.

Ok — I appreciate all the responses. But I’m having difficulty with aligning two objects on the same level using css and maintaining compatability in both IE and Firefox.

Here is the Question I just posted earlier:
How do you align the “list pages” or nav bar with the search bar on the same line using css without distorting the dimensions of your design? I’ve tried using css float right for my search bar and css float left with my navigation inside the header file. And then of course using margin settings to postioning…But I can’t seem to get them working properly in both IE and FireFox? ;-(

Any Suggestions?

Look in the default theme’s index and stylesheet how it is done with the next/prev navigation. Apply the same technique.

Sorry – disregard the last question. I figured it out with the “absolute” vs “relative” positioning.

In regards to tables I was mostly impling using it within the header file because sometimes it can be challenging using full css to do all the desiging and make the layout compatible in all browsers. I realize css is more flexible but sometimes too flexible. The good news is I understand the major browsers all got together recently and decided in the future they would all follow the same guidelines so the inconsistancy problems would be resolved. But until then I think if you can’t get it to work in all browsers tables in most cases will resolve it. But I do prefer using full css. I love designing the not so normal layouts which makes it all the more challenging. But what would life be without the challenge. ??