The Glory of <div> Tags

[Alexander.Ambro]

I've heard the gospel of <div> tags all over this site, seen it in the source of the best looking websites, and heard it from many web designers, so much that I cannot take it any longer without joining in.

Where is the best spot to start learning how to efficiently use <div> tags with css style, positioning, etc properties and dispense with messy table layout?

Websites, books, all much appreciated.

-Alex

[ray326]

Check the links in my sig and the many links off Zeldman's site.

[Centauri]

This site (http://www.how-to-build-websites.com/) is also a good one for beginners.

Cheers
Graeme

[Alexander.Ambro]

Thanks, but I was looking for something devoted to building pages with <div> tags...

any gems out there for something versed in html and css, just not yet a devotee of the div?

[Centauri]

Building pages using only div elements would be just as limiting as using tables for layout. The whole point of modern css styling is to use whatever element is the most appropriate for the situation, and to style it accordingly - the div is only one of many tools at our disposal.

Cheers
Graeme

[WebJoel]

Thanks, but I was looking for something devoted to building pages with <div> tags...

any gems out there for something versed in html and css, just not yet a devotee of the div? Know that the best web pages are built using DIVs is not quite as important as knowing why. I still use tables, -where they are appropriate. I just don't use nearly so many. And this business of table-nested-in a table nested-in-another table, etc, is old school...

Here is a bookmark-worthy site and a fun read read on the subject:

http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/index.html

[ray326]

Thanks, but I was looking for something devoted to building pages with <div> tags...

any gems out there for something versed in html and css, just not yet a devotee of the div?
Edit/Delete MessageYou're missing the point. You use a rich set of semantically correct tags for your mark up and apply styles to that. There are relatively few divs; divs being semantically neutral structural elements. I'd recommend a good dose of Zeldman to get started so you'll understand WHY the page layout paradigm changed.

[felgall]

A lot of people who finally realise that using tables to lay out their page then catch divitis and start using divs to lay out their page. They then end up with dozens of supurluous div tags on their page which is almost as bad as using tables since the idea of semantic markup is to use the tags that identify the content.

Use a table to identify tabular data.
Use a div to identify the divisions within your content.

Use the right tags to identify the content within those divisions and apply the CSS to whatever tag identifies the content.

Don't add unnecessary divs to your page.