[DenverR]

i have a pretty big site i want to change from tables to css

i am wondering do they really work? will my site have the exact same look with css. and if so why hasnt everyone done it?
also what do you think is the best software for the job

Edited by DenverR, 03 March 2008 - 05:03 PM.

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No page is exact as even your current layout with tables with vary from browser to browser.

Table layouts went out in the 1990s. They were poular because there wasn't much related to CSS at the time and what was there wasn't picked up by browser developers for some time. Look at Internet Explorer 6 and earlier. It is the most uncompliant browser out there. IE 7 isn't much better. Billy has already told us not to expect much from IE 8!

Believe me, CSS is the best way to go as one CSS stylesheet alone can be used to style every page you have. Any changes you want to make to affect all pages can be done on one file. Even better, the use of Server Side Includes (SSI) helps tremendously when adding/deleting nav links and/or content that appears on every page. Again, just editing one include file will propagate those changes across all pages that use the include.

You mention large site. It's not going to be easy and you have to think about if it will be cost effective to you. If you do a CSS layout and CODE SEMANTICALLY, you will improve you pages' rank with Google and other SEs. CSS has more benefits then a table layout. Tables were and are still being used by people who are new to coding or are just lazy.

Ron

[Major Payne]

No page is exact as even your current layout with tables with vary from browser to browser.

Table layouts went out in the 1990s. They were poular because there wasn't much related to CSS at the time and what was there wasn't picked up by browser developers for some time. Look at Internet Explorer 6 and earlier. It is the most uncompliant browser out there. IE 7 isn't much better. Billy has already told us not to expect much from IE 8!

Believe me, CSS is the best way to go as one CSS stylesheet alone can be used to style every page you have. Any changes you want to make to affect all pages can be done on one file. Even better, the use of Server Side Includes (SSI) helps tremendously when adding/deleting nav links and/or content that appears on every page. Again, just editing one include file will propagate those changes across all pages that use the include.

You mention large site. It's not going to be easy and you have to think about if it will be cost effective to you. If you do a CSS layout and CODE SEMANTICALLY, you will improve you pages' rank with Google and other SEs. CSS has more benefits then a table layout. Tables were and are still being used by people who are new to coding or are just lazy.

Ron

[thenotch]

I agree with Ron... using one is easy way out but you will still have to go in and tweak it and that might just be as difficult as starting all over.

CSS by far will ALWAYS be your best bet due space and bandwidth usage, semantics, sticking th W3C standards and quite honesty, once you swith over to doing layout in CSS you will find it's actually easier and less time consuming it to design it that using tables.