CSS for tables?

Bananna man

Hey,

Im new to CSS and have just started using them for the text in my site. Should i also be using it for table parameters i.e. cell padding, etc?

Also, If i use "assets" to place my navigation bar will this give problems for search engines when they are trying to crawl the site?

Thanks

seamus

Bananna man wrote:

Im new to CSS and have just started using them for the text in my site. Should i also be using it for table parameters i.e. cell padding, etc?

Ideally, yes, though it doesn't work exactly the same as specifying it as an element attribute. The benefit is if you decide to change the value sitewide, you don't have to edit hundreds of tags.

Also, If i use "assets" to place my navigation bar will this give problems for search engines when they are trying to crawl the site?

I don't understand..."assets"?

Bananna man

seamus wrote:

I don't understand..."assets"?

Assets are used in Dreamweaver MX. Im not sure if it has a universal name but in Dreamweaver you can write a "library" file caontaining for instance your navigation bar. Then in each page that you want the navigation bar to appear just add a link to the "library" page. Their similar to CSS i suppose but with these you can add whole chunks of code.

Goodshape

Sounds like a standard include. This won't cause problems with search engines - most sites these days use something similar.

Re: CSS for tables - yea, no problem. You can asign CSS values for pretty much any html tag or element. Eventually you should be looking at replacing your tables altogether with DIV's and corresponding CSS styles (but one step at a time maybe )


edit- here is a good reference point for CSS (article links to ten CSS related sites that are worth checking out for both examples and tutorials)

seamus

Goodshape wrote:

Re: CSS for tables - yea, no problem. You can asign CSS values for pretty much any html tag or element. Eventually you should be looking at replacing your tables altogether with DIV's and corresponding CSS styles (but one step at a time maybe )

I still have trouble letting go
Sometimes it just doesn't come out the way you want in all browsers.

Bananna man

DIV's?????? What in the hell are they. The more i learn the more things i find out that i know nothing about. :eek:

aidan_walsh

Bananna man wrote:

DIV's?????? What in the hell are they.

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_div.asp

Bananna man wrote:

The more i learn the more things i find out that i know nothing about.

Step 1: Close Dreamweaver.
Step 2: Open Notepad.
Step 3: Type.

The best way to do learn is without a safety net. WYSIWYG has its place, but the learning envoirnment isn't one of them, IMO.

smeggle

Goog resource for learning css - http://www.csszengarden.com/

To answer your question though - yes padding, margin, border can all be set in css.

Your navigation 'Libary' is similar to a javascript include but if it's constructed in a table or srced to a table/div then it's styling is controllable via css.

edit: btw - that csszengarden has loads of other good css resources but a lot of the stuff I learnt, I learnt from there. You can get samples of all the designs and to show how versatile css is there whole site structure is based on one set of divs and styling of different kinds are made via css across the site.
They used to run a competition on that. A set given div layout and then you applied the styling via your own css. Don't know if they still do it as it's a while since I've needed to use them but it's allways tucked away in my 'Favourite Bookmarks' folder...

Goodshape

Bananna man wrote:

DIV's?????? What in the hell are they.

Basically, a method of DIViding up a document so that you can apply different styles to different sections (eg. this DIV to the right with 5px padding and a border, that DIV to the left and so on) without the the need for tables.

I'm sure you're wondering why you'd bother when you already know how to do it using tables (I was the same) but when you start to learn the ins-and-outs of CSS design you'll see why people bother persisting with it. Very versatile altogether.

Bananna man wrote:

The more i learn the more things i find out that i know nothing about. :eek:

Always the case.

aidan_walsh wrote:

Step 1: Close Dreamweaver.
Step 2: Open Notepad.
Step 3: Type.

Quoted for truth.

smeggle

Goodshape wrote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by aidan_walsh wrote:

Originally Posted by aidan_walsh
Step 1: Close Dreamweaver.
Step 2: Open Notepad.
Step 3: Type.

Quoted for truth.

I'll second that - though I never opened Dreamweaver I did (Horrorified Admission) use Frontpage - for about all of 4-5 weeks. I then opened notepad and went Here - W3C

I also got a tip from a guy around early to mid 2003 - Learn xhtml/css - thats the future of web-coding/design. I'm glad I listened.........