Table or CSS layout

[Mary]

How do tables slow down a web site? What precisely happens when a Web site (that has tables on its pages) is downloading?

Mary

[webhostinguk-Sam]

When a page is loaded, the browser loads the complete table. In other words, the browser loads everything inside of a table's cell before displaying in front of the user. This might take more time than what a user can imagine or be patient. Especially for 56K modem users, this can be very annoying. Even today many people all over the world use dial up connections where download speed matters.

[Garry]

CSS and XHTML are much better options to using tables.

[Steven]

Very true, Garry !
With CSS anything can be placed anywhere. CSS positioned DIVs can behave like tables.

[Peter]

CSS allows more flexibility in design while Tables are designed to display data in an ordered way. With CSS the code is cleaner and therefore more accessible to search engines and there is a greater density of content compared to coding

Using CSS for layout is also highly advantageous for usability, as it leads to significantly faster download times.

[pink_fish]

Only thing you've got to watch is Internet Explorer which can't cope with the idea that you might want two a main column and a sidebar, right there, on the oage, next to each other. Put them too close and IE panics and shoves one to the bottom of the page.

Always check how it looks in IE before you publish!!

[tomsr]

CSS seems the way forward but I'm very inexperienced with it. Layers also seem to be better than tables, but again, I don't have the time or inclination to learn about that right now. I do web design more as a hobby.