| Making the move to tableless layouts...
Probably the biggest revolution in the way data is displayed online has arrived with the advent of CSS. Whilst CSS is no longer a new "technology", it is still far from being a standard way of developing styled websites for the web.
The idea is to split content and design, and with a properly built website, you can change anything from the font to the background colour of every page on the site in seconds. This has not only made sites far cleaner code-wise, but also made redesigning a website far easier than ever before.
However, many are stuggling to make the change, with some designers outright refusing to budge from their tried and tested table based layouts. Of course, there are problems with CSS, and there are numerous workarounds for practicalyl every browser in existance that you must learn before you can drop tables for all but tabulated data. You also have problems embedding items such as flash, and positioning elements can be a nightmare. There is also the "box-model" to consider, which shows a clear discrepency between the way IE and other web browsers handle margins and padding.
My question is - are these designers wrong to misuse tables (From the point of view they were not intended to form the layout of a page), or are there enough valid reasons not to make full use of CSS?
Personally, I am a big fan of CSS. I was one of those that were hesitant at first, but having developed several full sites using CSS based layouts, I haven't a doubt about the technology and have yet to come up against anything I cannot do with CSS that I could with a table based layout. I can see that tables are still quicker for those that are as familiar as I am, though is this really a good enough reason not to deliver something using the latest standards to your clients?
I look forward to seeing your thoughts. | 
Linear Mode
