[thelist] table layouts

Mark Groen mark at markgroen.com
Wed Feb 6 08:46:01 CST 2002


On 6 Feb 2002 at 10:07, ashok at magicalkenya.com wrote:

> Hi
>
> I have been working on a  website (done by someone else, handed down 2
> me!). a part of the page layout in the site is fairly complex :
>
> i have logically divided it as :
>
> 1    horiz. banner
> 2    horiz. banner
> 3    column column column
> 4    horiz. banner
> 5    column column
> 6    spanned column
>
> and the whole thing has been made as 1 big table with embedded tables
> & divs... wouldnt it be more efficient to make each of the 6 sections
> individual tables..., in terms of display by the browser would it not
> display faster since each section would have been split into a single
> table (so each table gets displayed as it is downloaded...?) ? (and
> there is quite a bit of embedded asp so it would make it easier to
> maintain) am i thinking correctly or does the browser show page only
> after downloading the whole page ?
>
> bye
> ashok

Correct on all counts, and if the tables are nested more than three
layers deep you will also run into problems eventually. I would split this
up into 4 or maybe even 5 separate tables on the page. Makes
*everything* easier in the long run and your visitors will at least see the
content above the fold(scroll) while everything else is downloading.

<tip type="html">
When messing with tables, it's nice to see how far you have everything
nested. A cool bookmarklet that shows each table with it's own border
colour is available at Sam-I-Am:
http://www.sam-i-am.com/work/bookmarklets/dev_debugging.html
</tip>

HTH!

	Mark
MG Web Services
Web Site Hosting and Development
www.markgroen.com
mark at markgroen.com
604-780-6917




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