How do I? Creating tables in CSS

Hello,

I can make and place tables anywhere on the page. I can make a CSS column as
well. I seem to only be able to place my CSS columns in limited places though.
For instance if I have one CSS column on my page how do I get my insertion
point next to and outside of the column? Can you even make two CSS columns next
to each other though instead of two tables? Also for basic page design is it
better to use tables or CSS?

Thanks

I can make and place tables anywhere on the page. I can make a CSS
column as
well. I seem to only be able to place my CSS columns in limited places
though.
For instance if I have one CSS column on my page how do I get my insertion
point next to and outside of the column?

There is no such thing as a CSS 'column' (at least, not yet).

What you are actually using are HTML DIV tags, and then positioning and
styling them via CSS.

You can put DIVs next to each other in one of two ways:

- absolutely position them (what DW calls 'layers')
- use floats (a bit trickier, but certainly doable)

to each other though instead of two tables? Also for basic page design is
it
better to use tables or CSS?

Tables were originally meant for tabular data. Any text that needs to be
displayed in rows and columns. Since we didn't have CSS back in the day, we
all started using tables to create our layout grid.

Today, now that we have CSS, theres a school of thought that says we should
use CSS for presentation/layout, and HTML for content/semantic structure.

There are certainly advantages to this. Your HTML is much cleaner and
simpler. Your HTML can be repurposed and restyled easily with different CSS.

The main disadvantage is that CSS is still a bit tricky and not fully
supported in IE yet. So it's a trade off.

Personally, for most sites I do, I use a VERY basic table if I need to deal
with columns. Then everything else is done with CSS.

-Darrel

Thanks a lot for your help. I have been going through a book on Dreamweaver MX '04 and have learned quite a bit but some areas they don't cover fully. Have a great day