Web Design Articles and Tutorials

Table vs. Tableless Design    February 23rd, 2010

By Mike McKeown

Anyone making even the slightest attempt to follow the world of web design has seen the debate over table versus tableless design. It seems the large majority of web designers are in favor of tableless design using XHTML and CSS, although some coders still prefer tabled design.

There are several advantages to using tableless design:

• W3C Standards favor the use of tableless design, and they set the standards for the entire web design and development community.
• Almost all web browsers today support CSS based designs, so compatibility is no longer an issue.
• If the coding is properly done, modifications to the design become easier.
• It is easier to make websites accessible to those with handicaps or text-based browsers using tableless design.
• Less code is used on the webpage, which search engines like. Search engines prefer a high content to code ratio, meaning the more text there is relative to the amount of code, the better.
• Better search engine ranking.
• If you apply to a web design agency they usually prefer tableless designs.
• Smaller page files lead to quicker loading times, which is better for the user and your bandwidth usage.

The moral of the story is that once you get a hang of tableless design it will save you time and money! It is important to remember though, that tables may still be a good option in certain circumstances, and there can be disadvantages to tableless design, which we will cover in the next part of our series on table versus tableless design, so stay tuned!