After multiple attempts at converting the table-laden Dragonballtoys.com layout to pure XHTML/CSS, I have finally come to a solution I think I like.

What are XHTML and CSS, you ask? XHTML is a coding standard that takes HTML 4 and gives it XML functionality. It’s much stricter, but much more rewarding in its markup and results. XHTML is used to provide the content of the site, but without any layout information.

Layout information is provided by CSS. Using extensively-nested tables for layout, as we used to, is a bastardization of the HTML table—they were meant to hold tabular data, never for layout. Now that most current browsers have decent support for CSS, however, we can leave tabular layout behind, and completely seperate style and layout from content. Yee-haw.

Rather than worrying about backward compatibility, the site now looks forward. Unfortunately, that means that the layout of the site will suffer in non-CSS compliant browsers, such as Netscape Navigator 4.x. If you’re using one of these older browsers (if you see our upgrade notice above, I’m talking to you), or if you’d like to learn more about what I’ve described, check out the Web Standards Project.

I’ll be converting the rest of the site as time permits. If you find something that appears buggy, or if you have suggestions, sound off on our message boards.

Posted by Jess Horsley on January 21, 2003 03:58 PM