Hello. I was wandering through some old posts (after all, that is the very purpose of a SEARCH function, innit?), and there's aplenty about why not to use TABLEs anymore, etc.
There was lot of talking of how not to "think tables" any more. And so--
If I have a simple table, like:

+ + + + + + + + +
+ CELL 1 + CELL 2 +
+ + + + + + + + +
+ CELL 3 + CELL 4 +
+ + + + + + + + +

done by HTML TABLEs.

To do it "a CSS way", that would mean put everything in DIVs or something, but then it would be all display one under another, even if I put two DIVs side-by-side, so the "table" will look like

+ + + + +
+ CELL 1 +
+ + + + +
+ CELL 2 +
+ + + + +
+ CELL 3 +
+ + + + +
+ CELL 4 +
+ + + + +

(Rather obvious, but I imagine, that the "table thinking" is all about. Am I right?)

So if I got it right, all the story is about "tinkering" the DIVs with some positioning. And the big question is...
HOW to do it?

If it's a table that is needed then use a table.

The whole idea of semantic markup is to use the correct element for the purpose.

If you are displaying tabular then use a table.

http://www.webmaster-talk.com/css-fo...tml#post911617

What I needed a tables for was a page layout, that's why I'm thinking to move to the "next step"...

ps.
On some old posts I found something called "Zen Garden" (or similar). WOW! One day I'll do something like that... Or I hope so at least

I wrote a long post somewhere on how to change your thinking when moving from "grids" to a blank canvas, based on the way I approached it several years ago.
If I find it or recall where I posted it I'll link it in this thread.

its all about the

float

my friend...do some research on that and the syntax that goes along with that and you'll know how to align and set up 2 column and 3 column layouts

..and so I did
Although, I've found that doing a layout via absolute/relative positioning works for me a bit better (easier for me to handle for some reason). So there's another question:
Which one's better: float, or absolute/relative?

ps.
I bought myself some lecturing to help me with that ("Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS4" to be exact), but didn't get to layout part yet

pps.
I started doing some website as an exercise-- can put some pictures if you'd like - I'd love to get some feedback

p^3s.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

I wrote a long post somewhere on how to change your thinking when moving from "grids" to a blank canvas, based on the way I approached it several years ago.
If I find it or recall where I posted it I'll link it in this thread.

still waitin'

Check the stickies here; the top entry is a good article about when using positioning is recommended and when there are better options.

The short answer is that you should use floats/clears, using the document flow, and use positioning sparingly. The main reason (other than IE finding a way to break layouts with lots of absolute positioning) is that your layouts can be more fluid. Using AP for everything is like nailing a picture to the wall, dragging it and driving another nail through it.

tim