[Pro] Tables in FWP

I’m building a new site in which I need to organize a good amount of data. In the past, I’ve used tables for this, but several FWP users (Ernie :slight_smile: ) don’t like the use of tables.

For those who don’t like using tables could you please explain why and what other method can I use to organize information in rows and columns without the use of tables?


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I have started to use Google docs and embed the spreadsheet into the FWP site.

Seems to work OK

John


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Tables are absolutely perfect for tabular data. If you could imagine interacting with your data in a spreadsheet or similar environment, then it’s a natural fit for a table in your layout.

Where tables get a bad reputation is when they are used to structurally define the way that a page looks. The bad old days of early HTML “layout” were rife with clear GIF images wedged into table cells to hold them at a certain dimension, and sliced images in other cells, in an effort to make a glossy layout out of what was originally defined (by the physicists at CERN) as a way to create and share scientific papers.

The reason this is bad is because you are subverting one semantic structure (a table – for tabular content, in rows and columns) for a non-semantic purpose (how this page looks to a sighted visitor). CSS was invented and popularized to get these two talking again. Visual layout is semantic in part – I can make something big and bold without using an H1 tag, and you will notice it more than something else on the same page – but it works best when it follows the lead of the semantic layout, rather than talking at cross-purposes to it.

Freeway hasn’t worked this way since version 2. If you are accustomed to drawing layered objects, you have been avoiding tables-as-layout all along.

Walter

On Mar 15, 2013, at 9:23 AM, RavenManiac wrote:

I’m building a new site in which I need to organize a good amount of data. In the past, I’ve used tables for this, but several FWP users (Ernie :slight_smile: ) don’t like the use of tables.

For those who don’t like using tables could you please explain why and what other method can I use to organize information in rows and columns without the use of tables?


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To explain further why i am moving to Google docs:

I had about 6 multi cell tables (approx 10 rows by 20Cols) within a site. which would have been fine if they were static, however they were not. During the months of June through August each table contents changed at least twice a week.

Early on Walter advised on the best and easiest way to update the tables, which worked well although it proved time consuming.

Now i can update the tables content via a normal web access and do not have to be on my FWP system to do it.

So weighing up the benefits, it appears Google is the way to go, but this simmer will prove me right or wrong on this one.

Hope that helps

John


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