I still use tables in all of my sites, and use CSS only to define the font styles usually...

I've been reading up on the reasons why to move to fully CSS pages; less code, "sleeker design", more efficient...

Does anyone here have an opinion on the CSS vs Tables debate? Any reasons why you lean one way or the other?

I'm thinking about getting a book or something, in order to start going the CSS route, does anyone have any recommendations for transitioning?

Thanks guys...

CSS all the way, for the reasons you listed above and more. Tables still have their use for content that is "grid-like" in nature (read: stuff that's geared to look like an Excel spreadsheet or a database table), but that's about it.

The best piece of advice I can give you is the simplest: don't tackle a layout all at once, like most people do. Take it in steps. Get a section of it done, look at it in as many browsers as you can, then move on to the next one. Don't code it all, look at it in one browser, and then hack for others...it takes ten times longer that way, contrary to published opinion.

CSS design rulez!

I recommend you to read Dave Shea's books!

It helps the webpage load fast and search engine spider can reach the content fast and cache it for next search result and the ranking position on search engines...




regards,
mowglitech.com

CSS has no affect on page rank whatsoever.

Keith you might want to read this presentation:
http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/everything.html

I think because some people find CSS sites much cleaner and much less conflicts with other browsers.

Tables work really well for tabular data. Many people don't like tables for layouts because of the idea that you need to separate your content from the design. But there have been times when using a table for part of a layout (in this case links) was much cleaner as easier to do than using CSS. Just aim at what will be the cleanest / simplistic solution.

But there have been times when using a table for part of a layout (in this case links) was much cleaner as easier to do than using CSS.

This would have to be a very RARE case, because for the most part CSS menus will be far cleaner than sticking in it in a table.

I'd say so too...personally, I'd love to see a case where tables provided a cleaner solution than CSS.

I always use CSS for all of the sites I develop , although I can think of a few cases where tables might be a solution for a large part of site design(not all of it) these include:

Forums - If used right, these suit a table based layout.

Browser Based Database Management - Any type of tool where you're viewing large amounts of data

Although I think that about covers it. For everything else always use CSS.

Jamie

I don't think tables and css are mutually exclusive ... if you're using css to define your fonts and colors, that's a good thing. But people got really clever, and figured out how to define a layout in css, too. Which has all the benefits you mentioned, and makes certain site-wide changes really easy.

CSS is better to then tables, because it loads quicker and is easy customizable