[thelist] How important is height when using tables?

Kasimir K evolt at kasimir-k.fi
Tue Aug 3 02:11:15 CDT 2004



Diane Soini wrote on 03/08/2004 1:25:
> But, like the original author, I'm still awaiting an answer to the 
> actual question that was asked in this thread. I know that setting the 
> width on a <td> can speed up rendering, but can height, too. Intuition 
> would say probably. If the height is set the same as it would otherwise 
> end up being without setting the height, I'm curious if it helps or 
> not. My guess is the added bandwidth of the extra bytes isn't worth it.

I think the actual question qot answered, but the answers kind of 
drowned :-)

Here's my own answer:
http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-of-Mon-20040726/162289.html

To recap:
In HTML 4.01 both width and height for TD are deprecated, so better not 
to use them. One could use CSS to specify height, but that may bring 
problems along.

A good idea is to test this: make two identical pages, specify height in 
one but not on the other, and then reach for the stop watch.

I haven't tested this myself, but I doubt whether the possible boost in 
rendering speed will be worth the potential problems. My advice would be 
to use spacer gifs for table layouts, and not specify height for TDs or 
TABLEs in their attributes or CSS.

.k




More information about the thelist mailing list