Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional

CHAPTER 8Tables and Definition Lists

Certain kinds of information need to be displayed in a certain kind of way—of that there is no doubt. A train timetable needs rows and columns, whether on the Web or in a pocket pamphlet. You can try and do it another way, but it is likely that the answer has been staring you in the face all along—tables are the right tools for the job.

The table has gained a very bad reputation over the last few years, specifically since the wider adoption of CSS for layout, and the fact that many designers (a number of whom still wrongly consider themselves to be "cutting edge") insist on using tables for nontabular data. The problem is heightened when web standards aficionados refuse outright to use tables even when they ...