Using tables....

[larryb]

It seems like a lot of web pages use tables. I'm a web page "rookie" without a html editor like FrontPage. All of my pages were done using html & notepad. I stuck to simple things like CSS & absolute positioning to position things where I want them. Tables seem like a better way to go for my next major site upgrade.

My questions are: 1) Do you need a html editor (like FrontPage) to effectively use & implement tables? In other words, can I implement tables using Notepad within a reasonable amount of time?

2) How much work would be involved to convert my site (http://www.bernardhomepage.com) to tables?

Thanks for the help...

[RadioRob]

1.) You don't HAVE to have it to be sucessful. If ya enjoy coding things by hand and you can picture the table layout and how it'll look without having it see it, HTML coding works great and gives ya the ultimate control and flexability to manage it. (Though personally if I have a lot of nested tables and such I'll use Dreamweaver just to save me a headache. Then I'll take it's finished code and tweek it to make sure it meets my needs. It usually is fastest for me that way.)

2.) Your current site does not look too hard to convert at all. :) Looks like your using a simple nav bar at the left, another nav bar at bottom right, and a content area. So ya can use a 2x2 cell table.... merge the two left cells together.... and ya have the same exact thing as ya frames pages. :)

Good luck! If ya need help with it, give me a holler!

[NMS]

I would suggest Dreamweaver as well. Far more easier than FP

[RSaucier]

They must've made a heckuva update to DW then. :)

For me, FP tables are the easiest:
Click button on tool bar, drag out to dimensions (cells high x wide), release.

However, to each his or her own! :D

Robert

[NMS]

DW is more easy not to actually create the table ONLY (similar to FP) but also to edit sizes, pixels, % etc...

After all it is how you get used to do things!
:)

[(jj)]

There is also 1st Page http://www.evrsoft.com/ (psst... It's free)

It does a fair job of making tables for you, and lets you modify the code as you go.




Just my "For What It's Worth"

[sdbarker]

Gee, I always thought notepad as easier. You get exactly what you type in.

-Scott

[muijefr]

I think, please move the children back, using WYSIWYG to maintain an internet site is courting disaster. Eventually you pay the price for what you know nothing about. I also think you need something more than notepad to organize, manage, and modify your source documents. For instance, global edit 100 html documents. At one time I used Front Page as an html editor, not as a WYSIWYG, but I now use cuteHTML (I do use F/P to edit internet sites I'm currious about because it does a good job of packaging the source as a visual display:). There are other editors like cuteHTML that give you hands on control but word processing assistance not found in notepad, such as spelling. An html editor should also provide ease of document access, not a long suite of notepad, and easy of change review using your favorite web browser(s). Don't worry about WYSIWYG tables or other <tags>. There are hundreds of good html tutorials available through most any search engine. Just type in "html tutorial" and you'll get 30,000+ links.

[hammondhill]

I used to hand code all of my pages, now I just use a program called Netscape Composer (Free, get it @ netscape.com) to do my basic HTML, however, when a page needs editing I just edit it by hand :). I`ll look into 1st page and see what kind of features it has, too.

[LadyShelly2]

I'm kindda in the same boat you are about using absolute positioning... But I used absolute positioning on my tables. :( Some people have reported that my page is all garbled because of it. I'm also trying to convert my pages.

So my question, at the risk of repeating Larry's question, is, if you want to hand edit the html code in notepad, how do you change a table that is exactly at "this spot" to stay at that spot yet be relative to the browser so it's not garbled to anyone? What in the code do you change when it says height= and width= for the table without making it absolute?

Sorry if that's a bit off topic.

~Shelly (who's needing a bit of help) :)

[sdbarker]

I agree w/ you, muijefr, that you need something more to work with your webpages than notepad, which is why I actually use vim (http://vim.sf.net), but not many people know what that is, so it's just a confusing reference. It amounts to notepad on steroids. ;-) It's got a bit of a learning curve, but it's a powerhouse. If anybody has any questions about it, though, I'd be more than happy to field them.

-Scott