Tableless XHTML Web Design Tips
You decide your site design in xhtml code will be tableless. The term tables in a database and tables in xhtml are different. One refers to content and the other presentation, or how that content is displayed on the actual web page. Data belongs in columns and rows, so tables are an exception to the concept of a tableless xhtml web design.
If you have a dynamic site that uses tables in a database, that is different than tables for layout. Don't be confused by the difference. A MySQL database happens to use tables to store data hidden on the server and extracted as needed. That is content. Think of those as storage bins for data necessary to drive the engine if your site uses a cms system. That use of the word "tables" is entirely different from the xhtml method of table layout using a matrix of rows and columns to present content.
The use of tables for layout in xhtml does not refer to the content. That is presentation. If your site will be tableless yet is a cms web design, that means the system extracts data from the database table where it is stored, and it is automatically assembled into the xhtml document which is what search engines and visitors see. For my custom cms web designs there will not be any tables code in the xhtml unless it is required for presentation. That conversion of data from a cms database to a tableless page means pages will not be presented with the outdated technique of bloated code using a table matrix of columns and rows.
Would a design in xhtml that I create ever use tables for layout? Not for the entire page, but perhaps sometimes for a portion of page content, yet rarely, and only when actually displaying some type of chart. For example, if a page needed a matrix displaying prices by quantity presented in rows and columns, in that case using a table for layout for just that section of the page would be appropriate. The mistake designers make is trying to precisely control the layout of a page by putting everything in "boxes", or table cells, in columns and rows.
TAGS: advice cms tables web design xhtml
If you have a dynamic site that uses tables in a database, that is different than tables for layout. Don't be confused by the difference. A MySQL database happens to use tables to store data hidden on the server and extracted as needed. That is content. Think of those as storage bins for data necessary to drive the engine if your site uses a cms system. That use of the word "tables" is entirely different from the xhtml method of table layout using a matrix of rows and columns to present content.
The use of tables for layout in xhtml does not refer to the content. That is presentation. If your site will be tableless yet is a cms web design, that means the system extracts data from the database table where it is stored, and it is automatically assembled into the xhtml document which is what search engines and visitors see. For my custom cms web designs there will not be any tables code in the xhtml unless it is required for presentation. That conversion of data from a cms database to a tableless page means pages will not be presented with the outdated technique of bloated code using a table matrix of columns and rows.
Would a design in xhtml that I create ever use tables for layout? Not for the entire page, but perhaps sometimes for a portion of page content, yet rarely, and only when actually displaying some type of chart. For example, if a page needed a matrix displaying prices by quantity presented in rows and columns, in that case using a table for layout for just that section of the page would be appropriate. The mistake designers make is trying to precisely control the layout of a page by putting everything in "boxes", or table cells, in columns and rows.
TAGS: advice cms tables web design xhtml
Jim Degerstrom 
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