Topic: CSS layouts- more capable than tables?

Ok, I'm prepared to forgive CSS for all the headaches it's caused me if someone can explain if the following is do-able (and compatibility-friendly) to me:

Layout sample

I've been planning to do the custom borders around content ala ALA's customcorners2.. ok... but is it possible to create the bottom segment in the same way my designer has forseen- with the "who we are" and "how we can help" sections apparantly joined and spanning around the map? Even if it's not practical to get dynamic content in that join section, I'd at least like to be able to create the illusion of the join (with images somehow) if possible.

I know this would be a nightmare (if not impossible?) with tables- but it it possible with CSS? Unfortunately, I'm too new at CSS to even know the answer to this question at the moment. Any comments and advice would be most welcome, am I flogging a dead horse here, or can CSS let me escape that COLUMN ROW mentality I've been brough up on webdesign with?

Cheers,
Rattus

So you want to create the U shaped area at the bottom of the page using a CSS based design.

Sure it's possible, you'll need to do some research though, check out float's in CSS for starters, alternatively depending on how you want your design to work, you may just want to absolutely position everything.

If you're new to making a completely CSS based page, I find that Position is everything is a useful starting place to answer those beginner questions you may have difficulty with.

Finally, you'll definitely have to have some shrewd image placement going on, and maybe the use of background images. For example the map in the centre, may contain the borders for the outside divisions.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Cheers,

[doh]typo[/doh]



(Edited by Blaise on 01-17-2005 16:06)

Thanks for the input, and starting points

Edit: The definitions list was worth posting this topic alone, thanks! Finally got to grips with the exact meaning of all those positional terms.

(Edited by Rattus on 01-17-2005 18:18)

It's essential to realize, as well, that it's not a matter of "using tables" or "using css"

No matter what you're doing, you should be suing CSS for anything style related.

HTML is for structure.

CSS is for style.

Tables are for tabular data. There are a host of other HTML elements specifically created for various purposes, and many generic ones (such as <div>'s and <span>'s) for whatever is left unconvered.

Is it posible to do this? Yes.
Will it be easy? Not likely...

Is it worth it? As an exercise, perhaps. I don't think it adds anything viable to the design, personally.

From my point of view, it's "CSS is better, but so horribly mis-supported compared to tables"- at least if I'm doing a simple, centered 3-column layout, I know how it's going to look on every browser, with no panic about them all being left-justified on the page in IE 5.5 or something.

quote:

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I don't think it adds anything viable to the design, personally.

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Valid point, and for the sake of my sanity, I'm probably going to skip it in the first revision anyway.