Basic Table Knowledge
Figuring out a friend's layout reminded me that I haven't talked about tables here. Again, this is basic intro stuff and those that know it, can scroll on by. Tables is not exactly my strong point and I'm still learning it but they are useful for a lot things. Again any code that is in bold is what you can modify.
WTF is a table? It's just a geek term for placing all your "work" in a nice neat box that has columns and rows. A lot of the times, they are used to show "data" such as results from a survey. But that's really boring. Tables can help you make very nice orderly website layouts which is how I set up BeautifulOne.net. That entire site was made by several tables placed within a larger table called a nested table. But that gets awfully complex and I'll go into that later.
Tables layouts are useful for journals/blogs and small sites. If you run a major fansite and you want every search engine picking you up, then tables is another way to go.
IMPORTANT: Always remember close all your tags because you may get a messed up table or if you view this by Netscape, you get a blank screen.
Basic Table
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>cell 1</td><td>cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>cell 3</td><td>cell 4</td>
</tr>
</table>
Creates this:
<table> ... </table> = this is the code to begin and end a table
<tr> ... </tr> = table row
<td> ... </td> = table data. All data go inside a row.
How To Control What Your Table Looks Like
These can be done by using something known as attributes. A more detailed explanation can be found here and here.
Nested Tables
Nested tables are when you have a large table and you place smaller table within it. To do that, you treat the smaller table as just another piece of data to be placed inside <td> ... </td> tag. Note the bold:
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>larger table</td>
<td>
<table border=1>
<tr><td>smaller nested table</td></tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
creates this:
I'll let it digest for a bit because tables is not an easy thing to get and I really hate tables. But most of my layouts, especially on LJ are all tables. Actually, LJ itself is a whole table layout and that's why all layouts I make for myself and for others on LJ are in tables. In fact, they're all the same table just moved around a bit here and there. I told you. I give the allusion of compexity but it really isn't.
Next time, I'll talk about frames layouts and then briefly on cascading style sheets (CSS). And then I'll take each of my sites and LJ layouts and go through them, bit by bit for you should have the basics by then.
WTF is a table? It's just a geek term for placing all your "work" in a nice neat box that has columns and rows. A lot of the times, they are used to show "data" such as results from a survey. But that's really boring. Tables can help you make very nice orderly website layouts which is how I set up BeautifulOne.net. That entire site was made by several tables placed within a larger table called a nested table. But that gets awfully complex and I'll go into that later.
Tables layouts are useful for journals/blogs and small sites. If you run a major fansite and you want every search engine picking you up, then tables is another way to go.
IMPORTANT: Always remember close all your tags because you may get a messed up table or if you view this by Netscape, you get a blank screen.
Basic Table
<table border="1">
<tr>
<td>cell 1</td><td>cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>cell 3</td><td>cell 4</td>
</tr>
</table>
Creates this:
| cell 1 | cell 2 |
| cell 3 | cell 4 |
<table> ... </table> = this is the code to begin and end a table
<tr> ... </tr> = table row
<td> ... </td> = table data. All data go inside a row.
How To Control What Your Table Looks Like
These can be done by using something known as attributes. A more detailed explanation can be found here and here.
Nested Tables
Nested tables are when you have a large table and you place smaller table within it. To do that, you treat the smaller table as just another piece of data to be placed inside <td> ... </td> tag. Note the bold:
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>larger table</td>
<td>
<table border=1>
<tr><td>smaller nested table</td></tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
creates this:
| larger table |
|
I'll let it digest for a bit because tables is not an easy thing to get and I really hate tables. But most of my layouts, especially on LJ are all tables. Actually, LJ itself is a whole table layout and that's why all layouts I make for myself and for others on LJ are in tables. In fact, they're all the same table just moved around a bit here and there. I told you. I give the allusion of compexity but it really isn't.
Next time, I'll talk about frames layouts and then briefly on cascading style sheets (CSS). And then I'll take each of my sites and LJ layouts and go through them, bit by bit for you should have the basics by then.