Chapter 7: Tables and Layout

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Overview

A table is an orderly arrangement of data distributed across a grid of rows and columns similar to a spreadsheet. In printed documents, tables commonly serve a subordinate function, illustrating some point described by accompanying text. Tables still perform this illustrative function in HTML documents. However, because HTML alone does not offer the same layout capacities available to print designers, Web page tables also are commonly used to structure a page for layout. But unlike printed tables, HTML tables can contain information that is dynamic, or even interactive, such as the results of a database query. We'll see that even when their impressive layout duties are retired in favor of CSS, tables will still have an important role in the Web developer's toolbox.

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