Tables are used on websites for two major purposes:
- The obvious purpose of arranging information in a table
- The less obvious - but more widely used - purpose of creating a page layout with the use of hidden tables.
Using tables to divide the page into different sections is an extremely powerful tool.
Almost all major sites on the web are using invisible tables to layout the pages.
The most important layout aspects that can be done with tables are:
- Dividing the page into separate sections.
An invisible table is excellent for this purpose.
- Creating menus.
Typically with one color for the header and another for the links following in the next lines.
- Adding interactive form fields.
Typically a gray area containing a search option.
- Creating fast loading headers for the page.
A colored table with a text on it loads like a bullet compared to even a small banner.
- Easy alignment of images that have been cut into smaller pieces.
- A simple way to allow text to be written in two or more columns next to each other.
The importance of using tables for these layout purposes can't be overrated. However there are a few things to keep in mind when doing so.
Most important is, that the content of a table is not shown until the entire table is loaded. If you have extremely long pages, you should divide it into two or more tables - allowing the user to start reading the upper content while the rest of the page is loading.
Now let's proceed with learning about the different techniques...