Tables as an Organizational Tool

Tables are one of the most overlooked, but most effective, organizational tools at your disposal as a web designer. Although newer versions of HTML editors are adding increased usability features that enable greater control over page layout techniques, tables still offer a solid method for organizing page content. Because tables can easily be made transparent, you can structure your content in a manner similar to that of printed text.

Tables, columns, and rows can be defined in absolute terms, or as percentages of available screen space. Defining your tables in terms of percentages is an easy way to make them automatically "adapt" to a wide variety of viewer screen displays.

NOTE: After you have laid out your page on graph paper, determine the number of rows and columns necessary to organize your content. Think of your page as a large grid where everything must go in a box.