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RE: Using tables for layout

for

From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Feb 23, 2004 12:13PM

Yes, that is true that web pages (which are the documents that they are
referring to) must be readable without requiring an associated style sheet.
However, you are not adding information when you style something with CSS,
you are just prettying it up. Navbars are considered lists of links.
Therefore, start out with a list of links for your navbar such as:

<ul>
<li><a href="home.html">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="products.html">Products</a></li>
<li><a href="services.html">Services</a></li>
<li><a href="contact-us.html">Contact Us</a></li>
</ul>

Then you could use something like:

<style type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<!--
ul {
background-color: #00F;
}
li {
color: #FFF;
}
-->
</style>

and other styles to style it. By taking the margins out, setting the width
of <li> and <a> to 100%, you create a link that appears to be somewhat like
a table cell. For example, the links down the left side of my personal web
site http://jrickards.ca/resume uses an unordered list where the <ul>, <li>
and <a> all have been styled so that it is somewhat like box (table cell).

When the styles are off, the person simply sees a list of links.

---------------------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publications Services Section
Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
Phone: (705) 670-5608
Fax: (705) 670-5690


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Savin, Jill [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 1:45 PM
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: RE: Using tables for layout
>
>
> <snip> "If you would normally use a nested
> table in the left cell to create a "list" of links for
> navigation purposes,
> drop the nested table and use an unordered list with styles instead.
> Ultimately, you may end up with only one two celled table as
> the only table
> on a page (for layout purposes) with the rest of the content
> arranged using
> CSS."
>
> But isnt one of the basic rules that web pages have to be
> readable without
> using CSS? I have a paper with this statement"
>
> "Documents shall be organized so they are readable without
> requiring an
> associated style sheet."
>
> Or when they say 'documents', do they mean like if you added
> a word document
> to the web page?
>
>
> ----
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