br clear="all" + tables?

[minkis18]

hi,

I dont do much web work but i occasionally get into small projects for a friend or someone I know, and was wondering about the clear attribute for the br tags. I have a page for a friend that has two multi-depth tables side-by-side, and a third table for the footer below these. Since one of the upper tables is longer than the other, I had my footer table aligning AFTER the table instead of below. I was able to fix this with about 10 br tags, but would a break with a clear=all attribute work as well/better?

also, I dont know if there is such a thing, but is there a good free html compiler? I used to have frontpage (I really dont know how i got it...i didnt even have office), and my school has dreamweaver, but each of these is usd $100+ and frankly, it'd be that or a new motherborad, and I dont want to have to make that decision.

thanks.

minkis18

[felgall]

Using tables for web page layout is poor design since using CSS produces much smaller source and more flexible layouts.

Good free HTML "compilers" = Firefox or Opera on Windows or Firefox or Safari on Mac. HTML isn't compiled it is read directly by the browser. If you mean good HTML editor then CSE Validator has colour coding of the HTML and a built in validator.

[NogDog]

Warning, HTML purist sacrilege....

If you have a recent version of MS word, you can create a page, then do a File -> Export To -> Compact HTML in order to create a HTML page that is not nearly as horrible as the HTML it creates if you just do a File -> Save As and specify a .html type file.

However, if you're at all serious about working with HTML and want to create well-constructed and valid pages, then you need to learn HTML and work with the source code in a text editor so that you are in control, not the tool.