<DIV> vs <Table>, Making the change...

using the div also reduces the size of the file there is a program out there that changes your table design to div. check out adobe golive.

 

When i first started web design, i always used to use layers in dreamweaver (divs). I always thought that I was doing this wrong, so started to learn how to create sites with tables. Now im finding that you should ctually use divs!

I think i prfer using divs, i dont like liquid layouts so i dont really have a need for tables.

Although you can us both.

 

I'm not sure how this example can be considered tabular in any sense. Are there any relationships across rows? Colums? Any table headers to indicate what rows and columns represent?

I don't have much time right now, but I'll come back and attempt a DIV-CSS implementation.

 

In the sense that there is a relationship between the input label and the input itself that lends itself to a tabular structure. Your fields would be the values being processed, and the record would be the search capability itself. It's not being expressed as such, but it's feasibly a tabular relationship.

 

Ok, so you are saying the information could be appropriatly structured as a table, even if it isn't now?

 

As I said in an earlier post to OP, I didn't think his information was structured properly, and he could probably get away with it, fake it, using tabindex and labels (labels should be used regardless). I think it is at least debatable that form fields and their labels are structurally related in a way tables express best, and that venturing away from tables can lead to confusion for the small minority of Web users who do not process visual information the same way most people do..

 

What structural information does a table provide than an explicitly associated label does not?

 

It depends on the data, I suppose. Say you wanted to compare two companies. You would have a form with two records and a set of fields for each. When you submitted the form, the data returned would be by record, based on the fields with a comparison analysis of some kind attached. Basically, you'd be filling in the components of a spreadsheet in order to get comparative results.

While this isn't what OP is doing, it's not too far off - it's just a search based on one record/set of fields, and the relationship between them (or the lack of given information) determines the result.

Again, it's nothing more than an interesting argument (if that sort of thing interests you) - far from gospel truth, but I've heard discussions in the past as to whether form data can be considered tabular, and it doesn't take too much imagination to see how it might be possible, given certain circumstances.

 

designed with tables... I'm going to go ahead and design the search form with tables. It seems to align much better. As far as the resullt, of course this would be considered tabular data.. so I will use there. I'm trying to design the results tables that jobs or resumes, then I can use the same css for both tables... similar to this forum.. each table uses the same css format. I have a better understanding now of <div> and when to use them. Thank You all, I just hope old habits don't take over... I'll start designing a table then next thing I know, half the page is done with tables...

I have a coldfusion / SEO question... look for my post in the SEO forum..

"SEO vs CFM" http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=64254

Thanks

 

I'll go on record as saying if this is the reason why you prefer to use tables, it is not a good one. If the nature of the data you're presenting lends itself to tabular form collation to be processed by visitors properly, then that's where you can at least debate the use of tables. If the only reason for the tables is that it's the easy way to make it look pretty, it's not a good reason, and the possibility for confusion of your end users that I outlined earlier is very real.