Introduction to Tables

What is a Table?

A table is a grid organized into columns and rows, much like a spreadsheet. An example table is shown below.

1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16

This table consists of sixteen cells organized into rows and columns. But before beginning to use tables in website design, we should consider the role that they fill.

Why do We Use Tables?

Tables were initially developed as a method to organize and display data in columns and rows. This chapter discusses such tables. However, tables later became a tool for Web page layout, and as such provide a possible solution for structured navigation.

Frames may also be used to provide structured navigation. However, the use of tables over frames is preferred for this purpose, as earlier Web browsers (e.g. Netscape ver.1.0) do not support frames.

To Do

Read up about tables in your textbooks.