Webmaster forum - question: making space between my table and text wrapping around

Author

question: making space between my table and text wrapping around

Helen Martin

2006-04-28, 4:20 am

I've just created a menu device on one side of my main page using a
table with a differnt colour background.. (this after reading advice in
this group not to use graphics for navigation links)

I'm not quite happy with it though, because the text on my site sits
right up against the table.. I'd like a few pixels between the table and
the text..

Anything I've tried doing to the table extends the background colour
toward the text.. (cell padding etc..)

hope you can point me in the right direction

?? paragraph indents
something with the class tag?

Helen Martin

2006-04-28, 4:21 am

>>I've just created a menu device on one side of my main page using a
>
>
> You must have missed the bit about not using tables for layout. :-)

actually... I'd read that somewhere else but I didn't really get why it
isn't a good idea, and I don't know what the alternative would be??
once I'd decided not to use graphic buttons that is.. what alse could I
do to make these links in a list like this..?

here is the page

http://mypage.uniserve.com/~hrmartin

>
>
> In your CSS add margin-right on the table or margin-left on the content.

hmm.. I actually tried that.. on the table.. but spelled it wrong, it
didn't work, so i thought I'd done something wrong.. aarrgg..

thanks
Helen

Jim Moe

2006-04-28, 7:06 pm

Matt Probert wrote:
>
>
> Simple tables are excellent for layout. They resize well, adapting to
> individual client font sizes and viewport windows.
>
> An alternative, is to use CSS positioning which doesn't resize well,
> and doesn't adapt well to individual client font sizes and viewport
> windows.
>
Simply not true.
If you expect CSS to perform just like table-based layout, you will be
disappointed. CSS is designed for the realities of the WWW, browsers and
HTML. CSS, amazingly, is different than table layout and inline styling
("tag soup").
Table layouts are an attempt to impose print-based layout techniques
onto a medium that supports it poorly. Tables offered designers a tool
that made fairly sophisticated layouts possible. CSS exceeds tables for
layout in almost all ways.

> The issue with tables, is that frequently they are deeply nested, and
> as such take a long time for the client browser to render.
>
They are also a greater maintenance burden.
Sites that have used HTML for markup and CSS for presentation are
usually smaller in size, easier to code, easier to maintain, and much
easier to change the appearance.

--
jmm (hyphen) list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)