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Thread: Making a grid of divs appear as a "table"

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From: Tech
Date: Tue, Jun 17 2008 9:30PM
Subject: Making a grid of divs appear as a "table"
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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Hi folks, 
 
I'm new to the list, and fairly new to accessibility issues, so be
gentle with me :) 
 
All week, I have been trying to create a cross-browser grid with a
fixed, scrolling header.  
 
While I have come up with a javascript-assisted "fluid width" version
that is pretty good, 
it cannot have any fixed width columns--ever.   I would like to try
building my own "table" that would be constructed entirely from
floating divs. 
 
But before I even bother trying, my question is,can I mark up such a
grid so that it would be reasonably interpreted as table/grid to screen
readers, etc. 
 
Does a table always have to be a table, or can anything be marked up to
appear (or semantically described) like one? 
 
 

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From: Gareth Dart
Date: Wed, Jun 18 2008 2:30AM
Subject: Re: Making a grid of divs appear as a "table"
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Hello, and welcome to the list.

I'm a little unsure what you're trying to achieve below, however, one
thing I will say is that if you have a wadge of tabular data to display,
then use a table. Don't make the mistake (as many people do, with the
noblest intentions) of confusing the tenet 'tables should not be used
for page layout' with 'tables should not be used full stop'. Tables can
and should be used when they are the appropriate tool for the job, and
it sounds like they are for your purposes.

Cheers,

G

Gareth Dart
Web Developer
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
95 Promenade, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1HZ
T 01242 211128 F 01242 211122 W www.hesa.ac.uk
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