Have to agree with you there (not that anyone's dis-agreeing, I just couldn't think how else to start the post, and now I'm rambling)
I first learned layout in tables but then switched to div's and css and once I got over the learning curve I found them so much quicker and easier to write.

There quite a few things with them that you will only learn through hours of coding and practice (fluid layouts, 2 column same length layout, box model stuff) but once you get them down you can write layouts so easy.

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CSS all the way baby!!!!

I've been designing sites for about 6 years and some of the sites I still manage from a few years ago (before my move from the dark side) are coded in tables. I actually cringe every time I have to work with those sites cause I have to deal with spacer.gif, column width/height, hundreds of lines of code, etc. Argh!!!

If I had a test of chopping up a design and doing it in tables first and then in CSS, I'd say I'd be twice as quick in CSS (that's if I'd get that far cause I'd probably go completely mad during the table design part).

Does anyone remember the time just before you moved from table design to css? I found it so hard to get the idea, concept, etc. I had tried it a few times and just couldn't get to grips with it. I remember the first project I used pure CSS and I was sooooo chuffed to get it working. I think that's about 2/3 years ago now but they were the days that I didn't like Firefox and hated fixing sites for it. How naive I was!!! I couldn't live with FF and Firebug these days!

Oh if you don't know already... install Firebug into FF. It lets you modify the CSS on the fly and see the changes immediately in the browser (as well as loads of other things). Great for quickly testing your CSS layout changes!

Cheers, Dave!

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David Behan
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I have to say, it's a bit of a strange question to be asking in 2007. Anyone who proudly claims to lay out their sites using tables at this stage should be considered terminally retarded.

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OOooh you lazy bugger - so you got sick of pressing Alt/Tab and then pressing F5 to refresh your browser? I dont know, you kids and your ways

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Oh hell yes, it's a whole other mindset IMHO.

That's a bit harsh to be honest. I know people who code with tables simply because they were taught that way. They wouldn't be coding for a living but run a few hobby sites. Just because someone is uneducated doesn't mean they are retarded. Learning CSS could be quite daunting if you have been coding for a number of years and if you are of the opinion "if it ain't broke don't fix it" you may well be proudly coding with tables.

*sigh* In this irritating PC world we really do have to elaborate on everything we say, don't we?

Let me try again... *ahem*

"Anyone working in this industry in a professional capacity who proudly claims to lay out their sites using tables at this stage should be considered terminally retarded."

Sorry Ken didn't mean to be awkward, just being PC as you say, don't like the way that word is bandied about.

I think labelling someone retarded, isn't PC in any world ...

Glad to hear that people are designing to reasonable standards though. There's a company near me who design all their pages unvalidated, with no doc type and using tables ....

I was hoping that wasn't the general norm ...

True. I'm not the least bit PC. And proud of it.

I think it is in many cases unfortunately.