When and how to work with tables and image slicing

Tables are a great way to layout HTML pages without slowing the download with lots of images. But there appears to be a tug-o-war on whether or not using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for laying out tableless and frameless layouts is the best method. The problem is that some browsers don't support this particular layout, and most HTML editors don't like them. Tables can be tricky with problems like finding blank pages in some browsers. This is brought on by table missing tags, or just items lined up wrong.

Places to visit

I found a mountain of information at About.com/web design: web/html. You really won't have to go much farther than this site. It covers HTML, XHTML and CSS in a very readable and understandable way. It explains why you should use certain methods and why not. One of the coolest things I encountered while browsing were Principles of Design, which linked you to each principle that includes Balance, Rhythm and Emphasis. Each was a simple tutorial on how to achieve that principal.

A real step-by-step lesson on image slicing can be found at Wise-women.com: fireworks to create image slicing. This site stresses using Fireworks for your image slicing. You get to study eight steps on how to properly slice an image. Chapters include:

• Create your composite image or open one that has already been created.
• Create the slices for your image.
• Set the optimize and object properties for each slice.

Here is Azure Marketing: image slicing description of what image slicing is:

An inclusion/insertion into web pages to reduce file sizes.

To create rollovers within the larger image. Rollovers allows the user to swap images as the they pass the mouse over the button image. for each image you need a new image for the swap to occur.

Greg Burnett/Nov. 11, 2009.