Chris Schmidt from Track5 in London regularly contributes to many design and photography magazines, including Computer Arts and Mac Format. Here Chris chews the web design fat with table layout, CSS, and even Becks—and gives us the heads up on planning and organizing our page designs. So without further delay, let’s get the Chris Schmidt Q&A underway!

Geoff: Hi Chris, thanks for joining us.

Chris: No problem, thanks for having me.

Geoff: Is there a particular way in which you utilize tables to control your page layout? For example, do you place all your page contents into a single, main table, then nest tables to hold further content, or do you take a different approach?

Chris: I consider the main layout table right from the beginning of a design. I'll try and keep everything as efficient as possible using only a single table if at all possible. Nested tables will tend to bloat the code excessively but with a little careful planning, some intelligent use of CSS and formatting, it becomes possible to lay out even the most complex design using only the minimum code.

Geoff: I agree—nested tables  can be a real chore, but given the complexity of many sites these days, it can sometimes be tricky to avoid. Are tables the best choice for layout? Would you go with layers over tables?

Chris: As an alternative I might consider CSS-P (also known as layout blocks in Dreamweaver) over layers, although tables still provide the most reliable method across various browsers, versions and operating systems. CSS-P provides much more streamlined code when compared with either HTML tables (or layers) but there are still practical problems to be considered given the large number of different combinations of platforms, browsers and versions still being used. Similarly, there is still a number of people using browsers earlier than the defining fourth generation which adds further complexity to non-table design.

Geoff: Yes, those older browsers will always keep us on our toes. So do you find the table approach difficult to work with, or is it all fairly straightforward with Dreamweaver? Is there anything we should be watching out for?

Chris: Dreamweaver makes the creation of tables almost too easy but you can easily run into complications if you try to make too many subsequent changes to your original layout. Try to plan ahead so you know how many rows and columns you'll need plus which areas may need to span. If you try to add more rows and columns and continue to span and separate cells as you dabble with the best layout you may find the software becomes confused as you clash width attributes, for example.

Geoff: Any table tricks you can share with us?

Chris: Get to know the strengths and weaknesses of tables before you start designing, and cater for any variations in your layout right from the beginning. Create a design with tables in mind and you'll find their construction becomes second nature. Also, choose a software title such as Fireworks or Photoshop and get to know the software's table slice feature intimately—this will save you a massive amount of time as you transfer your design from its original concept to a workable HTML file.

Geoff: Excellent. And what’s your preferred beverage while designing? Do you stick with coffee or do things take a nose-dive for the hard stuff when your code isn’t playing nice?

Chris: Coffee I guess, although I don't have a real preference to be honest—I'll avoid alcohol when working on more technical aspects such as code, etc, although a few bottles of Becks has been known to get the creative juices flowing when working on initial designs ;)
 
Geoff: And where can we find you online to check out your design work?

Chris: I work freelance and have numerous web clients all of whom can be accessed through my main site at track5.co.uk.

Geoff: Great, thanks again for speaking with us.

Chris: No problem!

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