Week Four | Part One

Learning to love Tables

Up to now we have examined and used block-level elements to create our Web page assignments. We have learned how to style blocks of text and images using in-line styling.

Hopefully you are reaching two conclusions:

1. This html stuff isn't so hard to learn, and;
2. My Web pages look really boring.

The trouble with html is that it was invented by people who never really had much sense of design.

Fortunately, some people who *did* have a sense of design discovered html. These people (we'll call them Web designers) discovered one tag in particular that allowed them to change the basic left-to-right, top-to-bottom structure of html.

This wonderful little markup item they discovered was called the <table> tag.

The <table> tag was originally conceived as a way to present data in a logical and ordered manner. Over time, the <table> tag became the primary tool of Web page design.

Though many older Web sites still use them, most Web sites designed after 2002 use other kinds of mark-up. Logical divisions, server-side includes, frames, and cascading style sheets are a much more efficient way to achieve the kind of visual results that tables provide. We will learn more about these in the coming weeks.

Remember this: if you can master the use of tables either for:

1. Page creation
2. Email design
3. Data presentation

Then you will have mastered an essential Web design skill.

Please go to Week Four Part 2 »