Jimuelle Isais’ Query
> I would like to know the difference between Table and Div. > Is there any disadvantages using Table tags in creating layout? > Because I'm more comfortable using Table in my layouts. However, I > noticed some designers/developers are using Div tags to form their > layout. By looking with each out I dont see any difference.
Alfredo Palconit’s Response
>Tables are good for tabular data. >But as much as possible, try switching to tableless and use xhtml css. >Layout wise, divs really easy to update, >especially if you have so many pages and you need to update all of them at once.
Jojo Esposa’s Response
>I agree with Alfredo that tables are semantically used for creating >tabular data. It should not be used for layout purposes. On the >outside, there is no difference. One distinction lies with the use of >a screen reader. >In a screen reader software, one of the first thing it tells when it >opens the website is what type of layout it uses whether, tabular, >framed or none. More often it's quite confusing for our visually >impaired surfers to hear that the screen reader tells it encounters a >table but there is no data inside. It is always expected that a table >contains records and fields. A blind person is not interested in the >beauty of your site. Importante sa kanila kung angkop yung naririnig >nila. >Isa pang problema ng table layout is if it makes sense when >linearized. If you remove all the styles, ano kaya itsura ng website >mo? You think, the column still follows the same order as with styles >turned on? >Ok pa rin naman ang table layouts because it's still widely used and >can pass the transitional HTML doc type. Pero siguro try mo mag- >experiment ng tableless layout. Tapos tignan mo ang pagkakaiba. Once >you get the hang of it, you might not want to go back to table >layouts anymore. Thank you for posting your question. :-)
Rey Mendoza’s Response
>Div - is short for division, which is meaningfully (semantic) correct to use >for layouts. You "divide" the page into sections >Tables - as alfred had mentioned -used for tabular data, should not be used >for layouts because it is not semantically correct, but you cannot fault >(old) designers for this, tables have been around longer than CSS, which >means there were no other options of that time and others had to improvise. >But if youre a beginning web designer, dont use tables, use CSS positioning >for layout, you will be on the right path and your web design kungfu >will be much better in the >future, not to mention your web design career
References:
- Joe Clark’s Building Accessible Websites – http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter10.html
- Web Design Kung Fu – http://webdesignkungfu.blogspot.com