hi people,
i'm tryin to do my own html coding(no css yet),if i decide to do a two column table,do i need to leave space for future ads?
secondly,do i need to create and save the pages before i create the links in the home page?

Hello i think i can help you. first of all yes leave space for ads it will make everything easyier later. Second you dont have to have it saved to make a link. But the link will not work till you save and upload the files.

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wenbedma

First, ads don't really belong in tables. Tables are for data not for layout unless you are learning to write code the outdated way that is largely discredited for modern web site design.

I learned from such tutors (they are still available on the web) and had to start over. Check out htmldog.com or w3schools.com to learn the way to code html and also for the css which you can easily start using with your html.

In a properly constructed web page you will have no trouble inserting ads at the time you need them. It doesn't hurt to plan for them in advance but when you are first learning it is probably not a reasonable thing to do because there are many other factors you will not anticipate without some experience.

I'm not sure I understand the "saving" question, but in practice you need to save your work every few minutes anyway so you don't lose your work. But you can add links at any time.

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James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

i don't understand wha exactly you mean by "outdated way" i'm using w3scchols,htmldog and lisa's tutorials.Am i safe if i use them?

OK, wenbedma.

If you are learning at w3schools.com you will stay on target. There is no better. htmldog.com is also excellent and is a little easier to follow at times for people just learning.

Perhaps you used the word "table" when you were only referring to the column or something, not really using the table tag in html. But here is the explanation.

In the past people used tables to lay out their pages. This was before css. Many of the tutors on the web are very old and still teach this. The two mentioned here do not.

To show the difference, if you lay out your page using tables and you decide you want to change the font or color in your headers you would have to go back to every single one on every page and change the color. If you have many pages done you would have a massive task for even a small change.

If you use css to do the layout and styling on your page you would have a quick and easy fix. You would open your css file, write one line that changes all the headers, or all the headers of a certain size. Done.

When we say tables are for data, we mean that if you have information that requires columns such as an address list with columns for name, street, phone, etc. then use a table. But for laying out the page use css.

With css you divide your page into sections with the <div> tag. You give each one an id in the tag. It is simple: <div id="leftcol"> or whatever name you want. Then with css you will tell it to go to the left or right, center or whatever. Much easier and effective than html tables, as well as being so much more flexible.

You don't have to know much html before going on with basic css as well. All this may be a little confusing at first, but I am sure it will soon make sense. Just relax. You will have a lot of fun with it as you go along.

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James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

Ummm...you can use CSS the exact same way with tables as you can with DIVs. Meaning that if you you need to change something in a page with a table-layout you only need to change it in the CSS...just like using DIVs. All the table attributes can be defined in CSS.

The one problem I have noticed with DIVs is when a visitor uses IE6, which many still do. I have noticed many sidebars in blogs that have dropped to the bottom of the page (below the content), simply because one of the columns is too large. When you use DIVs, which you should learn anyway, makes sure you view your site in multiple browsers and version.

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TechieGuy

Because the original question came from someone in the beginning stages of web production I tried to keep it simple. Since technically it is possible to change properties such as color or text size within a table using css, it would have been better to suggest some other example of css's advantages for layout even if more complex to describe. There are many advantages from my viewpoint although there still are some issues, as you suggest.

In any case, you won't get me to argue with you about tech stuff. You're the expert there.

I think you will agree, however, that a new learner is better off to go with the updated standards, learning to use css for layout rather than tables, at least to start. Certainly, at a minimum it is helpful to understand the issue from the beginning rather than being told different things by different people without being able to put the pieces together.

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James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

My apologies James. I wasn't trying to start an argument. I do agree with what you had said about DIVs. I also agree that using DIVs with CSS is the new and more updated method of laying out a page.

I also believe that web authors should go with what they know best, or are confortable with, whether it be tables or DIVs.

My apologies once again. As I reread my post I guess I came out a little harsher than I had intended.

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No need to apologize. I wasn't offended and you weren't offensive.

The fact is, I agree with your statement as to the reasonable approach. While there may be a right or wrong to lying or stealing, there is no right or wrong to code. Preferences sure, but morality no. Besides, people need the flexibility to do things the way they know regardless of someone else's idea of what the ideal might be.

The truth is I don't even do a lot of things myself the way I might prefer. But I reserve the right to do them my way anyhow. I would rather do them my imperfect way than not get them done at all. At least until I can learn more.

I'm getting too long here, but one more thing. If I get something wrong don't hesitate to point it out. I'm just learning, as I have been for ____ years, and I don't want to quit now.

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James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

so what's the difference between a column and a table in web designing?

A table contains columns and rows, and a single table must contain at least one of each.

In the new DIV/CSS method, you would break each element of your site (sidebar and content) into separate columns.

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wenbedma

TechieGuy has given you a good, precise answer, but since you referenced my post in the quote I will respond, too. I can see how references to columns could be confusing since tables have rows and columns while layout talks about columns as well.

Perhaps an example of what TechieGuy describes would help. If you look on the main page of this forum you will notice that the main part of the page can be seen as having two parts. On the right side you see RSS feed button, the WB Sponsors and below that some ads. That is the right "column" of the web page layout which could be done with css. Then the main part of the forum listings would be the main "column" in this case (it could be called content column or whatever).

Now the list of forums itself is a table. Actually it appears to be more than one table, one after the other, with additional content below that. All of these are in the main layout column.

As a table, the list of forums has rows across (forum, last post, etc.) and "columns" going up and down. So there you have columns in a table, not to be confused with layout columns.

I've tried to be really detailed to make it simple, distinguishing the two types of columns enough to understand when you are starting from scratch. To keep it simple you may want to just ignore this last point so it doesn't add to the confusion. But IF you do layout with tables, which I don't recommend, although those who already do so are quite skilled at it and do it for a variety of understandable reasons, you can have "columns" that are both table columns and layout columns at the same time.

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Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."