Posted by Brian Cryer on 07/11/07 11:56

"Cibressus" <terry.price@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1184111393.848364.297320@22g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...
>I have read (Learning XML - O'Reilly Publishing, 2001), in which, it
> is stated that you should not use tables to format text. I understand
> this is because it separates data from formating, which can lead to
> adverse effects such as not being rendered properly on speech only
> browsers.
>
> If I should not use tables to split text into multiple columns, what
> should I use? What should I use if I need more flexibility?

The gist of it is to format each of your columns individually and then float
one column against the next. So something like:

<p style="width:20; float:left">Left column</p>
<p>Body</p>

In practise you'll probably want to apply those styles to divs and move the
style defs into a separate style sheet. There are limitations and you'll no
doubt find issues, but that's the general gist of it.

To be honest though, and whilst I do mostly use this technique, there are
still times when using a table for part of the layout is just so much
easier.

Hope this helps.
--
Brian Cryer
www.cryer.co.uk/brian

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