5 reasons tables for layouts are bad! 1. complicated & difficult to maintain 2. often slow to...
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5 Reasons Tables for Layouts are BAD!
1. Complicated & Difficult to maintain2. Often slow to load3. Tables can hurt search engine optimization4. Tables don’t always print well5. CSS redesigns are more efficient
Reason 1
Fact: Tables are Complicated & Difficult to maintain
If it is not data that could be managed on a spreadsheet, images or graphs will be difficult to upkeep.
Resourcewebdesign.about.com/od/layout/a/aa1111oza.htm
Table used for graph will be difficult to maintain.http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/graphs/29.htm
Reason 2
Fact: Tables are often slow to load
Resourcehttp://www.alaskanchefshawn.com/Pix.htm
http://www.alaskanchefshawn.com/Pix.htm
Here, a screenshot of a of a site using tables to
load images is taken before the images
loaded.
Reason 3
Fact: Tables can hurt search engine optimization
Data inside of tables can be considered less important than data of other sites.
Referencehttp://webdesign.about.com/od/layout/a/aa1111oza.htm
http://www.seobythesea.com/2008/08/search-engines-extracting-table-data-on-the-web/
Information in tables will not be given priority by search engine spiders.http://www.lib.purdue.edu/rguides/studentinstruction/evaluation/websiteevaluationchart.html
Reason 4
Fact: Tables don’t always print well
Tables can be too wide to print, to make tables print, browsers will cut tables off and print sections below.
Referencehttp://webdesign.about.com/od/layout/a/aa1111oza.htm
Reason 5
Fact: CSS redesigns are more efficient
Redesigning a website using tables is significantly slower than redesigning a website using CSS.
Referencehttp://www.velvetblues.com/web-development-blog/
http://www.chromaticsites.com/blog/13-reasons-why-css-is-superior-to-tables-in-website-design/
Examplehttp://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/03/24/align-images-html-tables-for-wordpress-blogs/
One of NY Times worst rated siteshttp://pol.illinoisstate.edu/jpda/charts/bad_charts1.htm#NYTimes
Summary• There are better ways to layout images than tables, for example,
CSS.
• CSS layouts for images will load faster.
• Less priority is given to data if it is inside a table.
• User experience may be poor if they find it difficult to print your information as it appears on page.
• When using external CSS style sheets, it is much easier to maintain visual consistency throughout a website.