I havn't done a lot of codding/html since tables were in fashion. Now i'm learning simultaneously learning css and designing a new site. I have a few questions..

1.I have used the wc3 schools code validation tool and it says not "xhtml transitional", I put in a few major websites and according to the wc3 they all have multiple errors?

2.How the hell do I center my site? When ever I try With css, i can get it in the center, but not make it expand down when the browser's width is pulled in.

3. It seems that when I came back to design everyone was against tables. My site uses 95% css and a few tables just because old habits die hard and I don't know how to make divs do anything I want yet. Am I going to get **** from purists for using tables at all?

1.I have used the wc3 schools code validation tool and it says not "xhtml transitional", I put in a few major websites and according to the wc3 they all have multiple errors?

What 'major' websites ?? The W3C validator is far from perfect, but 'major' websites are not necessarily the best example of valid code. Sad to say, but all too true.

2.How the hell do I center my site? When ever I try With css, i can get it in the center, but not make it expand down when the browser's width is pulled in.

To center using CSS you have to do 2 things:
1 - add text-align: center to the body to force IE to center
2 - add margin: 0 auto; to the container you want to center and also add text-align:left to that same container to put your text inside it back where it belongs.

That method requires that the container or "wrapper" that you want to center holds ALL of the content for your site AND that it has a defined width.

This method is not going to force a vertical stretch, for that you must use percentages or em units for widths on everything, and even that won't guarantee that divs won't reposition underneath each other.

3. It seems that when I came back to design everyone was against tables. My site uses 95% css and a few tables just because old habits die hard and I don't know how to make divs do anything I want yet. Am I going to get **** from purists for using tables at all?

Well, I'm one of those purists . Tables for layout should NOT be used, they were never meant for layout, but in the old days that's all we had to control our layouts. Tables still have their place for TABULAR DATA.

For converting to table-less layouts, I highly recommend this book:
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css2/

Thanks for you detailed response, I appreciate that.

I really want to keep up to standards, but what is wrong with some tables? are they slower or just outdated?
Also I really cant figure out how to incorporate your advice on centering to my site. I have a main #pagecell div that has a defined height width etc.. and within that is contained many other organizational divs, content, images etc.. could someone give me a started code to show how centering my #pagecell to the middle of the browser and have it gradually move to the left as the browser is made smaller (pulled in)?

Thank you

Originally Posted by highanddry

but what is wrong with some tables? are they slower or just outdated?

tables are ok for tabular data. just avoid them for layout...

to center a div, simply give it an auto margin..

#mydiv
{
margin:auto;
}

I already gave him the answer to centering, and it's not JUST margin: 0 auto - unfortunately. IE won't heed that rule.

As far as tables for layout -- read thru this presentation:
http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/everything.html

If yoy'll post ALL of your code and CSS or a link to the problem page, it will be far easier to diagnose your centering problem.
You might also find this helpful:
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page...ngBlockElement

Originally Posted by highanddry

I really want to keep up to standards, but what is wrong with some tables? are they slower or just outdated?

If those are the choices, I'll go with outdated. It's really not a matter of speed, or even the size of the html document ( although if you do it right, divs and CSS come out much smaller than lots of <tr><td></td></tr> code ). Part of it is that the code is just easier to read and work on, and the main reason is that it's a good idea to use the tags as they were intended.

Html isn't like xml, where <table> could mean furniture, a database element, an html table, or something entirely different. In html, each tag has a well understood meaning. With a bit of hacking ( border="0", cellPadding="0", cellSpacing="0" ... colSpan="13" ... ) you can make a table to a lot to lay out a site, but that involves complicated hacks, and it's not what tables are really for.

If you believe all the hype about the web becoming more "semantic" and machine-readable, it will be less work to convert a site laid out in CSS than one using tables for placement.

One thing to rememeber: First cater for users and search engines.

It is correct tables are not for layout, but you could and can still use them to create grid'ish based layouts. For a long time they were the only workable option if you wanted browser compability (albeit it could require various "hacks"). That said, I would probably base new website / layouts on CSS and only use tables when somehow necessary.