loading center column in table first

[Dood]

I have 3 columns in a table and need the center column to start loading first before the outside columns. Is this possible?

Say you have a table with 6 cells from 3 columns and 2 rows, 3 cells on top and 3 cells on bottom, and when loading the page does it load the top 3 cells first and then the bottom which would be reading left to right or would the top left cell and then the bottom left cell load first?

I just thought that maybe if the page loaded left to right I could put an empty cell above the left and right columns and that way the center cell would start loading first.

Hope this isn't confusing.

[the tree]

In short, don't use tables for layout. Look into CSS positioning to see how you can put something first in the markup but wherever you like in the final apearance.

[JoeCullen]

the tree is right you should use divs instead.

but if you put an empty cell at the top left then the browers will read the middle colum 1st, the way your talkin the whole page will load so fast thou its hardly worth it..

Some people do this to trick search engines into reading the main content 1st, it sposedly pushes the website up some ranks. Ive never actually tested it though.

[comptech520]

In short, don't use tables for layout. Look into CSS positioning to see how you can put something first in the markup but wherever you like in the final apearance.

The Tree has a good point, CSS is the wave of the future, I got chewed out many of times for using tables.

For use on tables and baisc HTML Eduquitt go to
http://www.annabella.net/html.html

Good Luck

[Dood]

I first started making tableless sites with css a couple of years ago but now I just use tables and format everything for the tables with css.

The page I was asking about this for has 10 rss feeds with 10 links in each in the center column which loads fine, but each of the outer columns have about 40 links each that are being pulled thru a hugh script from a database and all 80 need to go thru at the same time but they can't because the rss is in the middle.

For some reason it wants to hang after loading the first column and just sits there for like 10 seconds doing nothing. That's why I needed the center column (rss feeds) to load first, cause it's faster and the database links are a little slower.