Prescott Websites

Welcome to Prescott Websites, a provider of website design and website development in the tri-city area. I hope you enjoy your stay and learn lots of valuable things about how to create websites.

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Tables

July 27th, 2010

Tables are good for many things, for example:

Holding your plate and silverware at dinner time.
If the water table is high in your area, that is good.
Waiting tables can be profitable, if you get good tips.
If you like billiards, a pool table in the garage might suit you.
You can even table an idea or motion, and get back to it later.
A table of contents is helpful in a book or catalog.
Folding tables are good for yard sales and other similar things.

But, tables are not to be used for website layout. They can be used to present a list of products and prices, though.

Lately, I have seen many sites that are using tables for layout, and you wonder why it is that designers are still doing this, despite all the drawbacks. With the HTML and CSS that are now available, there is no reason not to design standards compliant websites, and that doesn’t include tables.

Some disadvantages of tables, when used for website layout:

It takes time (and money) for a developer to change sites that are laid out with tables. With css, you can make one change and affect all the pages.
Tables are not flexible. With CSS, you can put your content anywhere in the page, and control its location.
The biggest disadvantage is that your presentation and structure are not separated, leading to bloated code and editing issues.
Pages are not as accessible, especially when nesting tables.

Tables are good for email newsletters, though, since most email software can render them the same way, and how they should appear. If you are still using tables for layout of your website, please contact me for a FREE site review.

I can make suggestions on how to improve the accessibility and presentation of your site, and how much it will cost to convert to valid HTML/CSS. For a very small investment, you will then have a site that you can update and maintain very easily.

Posted in Accessibility, HTML/CSS, SEO, Valid Markup, Website Layout | No Comments »