What are the HTML tables good for?

[Brutal-B]

I know they're not meant for layout CSS is meant for that, so what are the uses for a HTML table, of course for mathematics and numbers but is that all, as you can see im quite a newb to HTML so just tell me what HTML tables are used for, thanks.

[Helpful Chad]

Tabular data.That's what the original purpose was behind the table. Then designers started to figure out that you could drop the borders and make a design out of them.I use tableless as much as I can, however there are just somethings that tables do much better than CSS. I write all my forms in tables, that's because it's easier for the user to read and that's the main objective. Make it easier for your audience.Good question,Chad

[montag]

If you have data that you would put into Excel, it could go into a table. You might use excel for keeping sports scores or a teacher might use it to track students grades...basically anything you would use excel for. If you have data that you wouldn't use excel for, it shouldn't go into a table.There are still a number of people that will tell you to use tables for design and they're wrong. It may be easier for them to use tables for things like forms, but only because they don't know the proper way to do it with CSS. Here is an example of a forms page I recently created without tables. It is more flexible than tables ever will be.http://signatureoffset.com/QUOTE_REQ.2.0.asp































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