1 : Uses for Tables in Web Pages

A WEB PAGE
Table of Contents	MAIN WINDOW
FOOTER

Or you can use tables for more traditional uses, such as arranging data:

GROWTH PROJECTIONS
/	June	July	Aug.
U.S.A.	0.20%	0.45%	0.80%
Mexico	1.20%	1.80%	2.01%

Table borders can be made invisible to the viewer, allowing you to lay out pages with horizontal or vertical devisions appropriate to the design you want. In fact, this page you are viewing is contained in one large table, allowing for the alignment of the Heading above ("1 : Uses for Tables..."), the navigation tabs you see to the right and left, and the footer below. (Click here to see this page with the table borders visable.) You can also arrange tables to accomodate the different sizes that a visitor will be viewing your page by utilizing the percentage commands and fixed-width commands that are available for tables.

Tables can also be used to break up text further, and create columns, as you can see here. In addition, tables allow for creativity in aligning text and graphics, either to the right, left, top, or bottom of a cell. Given that this page is one large table, the examples above also show that tables can be "nested" inside each other to produce tables within tables.

To summarize, tables can be used as the primary layout tool for your Web pages. Once you learn the basic tag commands, tables are quite easy to use, and the results are only limited by your imagination.
If you come across a well-designed page on the Web, take a moment to view its source code. Chances are it will be using tables (or their close cousins, "Frames", which we will be covering later), and will probably give you some design ideas for your own pages.

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