Should I teach the CSS layout directly to new students, or should I first teach how to make a layout with tables, and then without tables?

Question

Should I teach the CSS layout directly to new students, or should I first teach how to make a layout with tables, then div + CSS?

And what should I teach between HTML or XHTML? Both are the same, so should I start right with XHTML 1.0 Strict?

Answer 1

You must teach them how to use CSS for layout and tables for tabular data. They will find out that they can (incorrectly) use tables for the layout themselves.

Answer 2

You must teach CSS directly.

More important than “making layouts,” they need to understand “Layering: content, presentation, and behavior . ” Once you teach them better.

If you're concerned about CSS complexity, just do simple exercises. About XHTML HTML, choose one to teach, stick to it, and after they are comfortable, you say there are alternatives. IMHO, I would choose HTML though.

Answer 3

Better to train the css layout first. Tables are too light - if they first study the tables and then switch to css, they will be wondering why you are telling them that they use a system that requires hacks and tricks to work in different browsers, and to get columns of the same height and flexible widths that you get for free with tables.

Answer 4

I would start with non-tables, why learn what goes out the door?

I would also go with HTML 4/5, XHTML is abandoned at this stage ... not to say that it is not used, but in the next few years it will move to HTML5, not XHTML.

Answer 5

I will speak from the perspective of a truly inexperienced person when it comes to layout design ...

so in the old days it was all html tables and although sometimes cumbersome to get what you want, but at least it was logical.

then I read all about the “right way to do things”, i.e. how css can save the world. and got lost, maybe it's me, but to get something trivial, you always need to mess around a lot with css and a really huge amount of guesswork, trial and error. now I have to admit that I did not spend much time figuring out css, but it seems a lot less intuitive than the table layout.

So. I would advise you to start with the css build, and I hope your students can fix it. when it suits them, enter the table. if you do the opposite, you will confuse them (or at least I'm confused and still trying to apply the same patterns to css, which obviously does not work)

Answer 6

I do not teach their tables!

And teach them xHtml, it is more structured, and they will better understand the syntax.

Answer 7

Although we all hate tables for layouts, I think it's important to introduce their concepts so that they can understand exactly how important CSS is.

I would also suggest teaching them XHTML instead of HTML5, I’m sure that you can probably do a session on how HTML5 can be when it finally ends, but it makes no sense to do this when it's so young, wait until they understand first XHTML.

Answer 8

If you're starting to make a mistake, don't expect this to be fixed later (with the level of careless laziness we deal with in the web industry).

How about you first teach their accessibility and how the table in the layout will decrypt any screen reader, then you do not need to explain why the tables will be easier.

Answer 9

Iam teaches some people html design in our company. The best way so far has been to start with pure xhtml 1.0, than to add some styles using css, than to start adding divs with float and such things.

Show them later how easy it is to create a 3-column layout with one of the popluar css frameworks such as Bluetrip oder grid960.gs . I think there is no reason to learn table design (only if you use css3 and new table styles).

Answer 10

HTML or XHTML?

HTML and XHTML are the same language (i.e. the same tags with the same meaning), but with slightly different syntaxes. If you know HTML, you know XHTML. As for training, there is no noticeable difference between them.

The difference between HTML 4 and HTML5 is greater than the difference between HTML 4 and XHTML 1.