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Can you do this HTML layout without using tables?

Asked 2009-02-07T01:44:01.893
104

Ok, I had a simple layout problem a week or two ago. Namely sections of a page needed a header:

+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Title                                            Button |
+---------------------------------------------------------+

Pretty simple stuff. Thing is table hatred seems to have taken over in the Web world, which I was reminded of when I asked Why use definition lists (DL,DD,DT) tags for HTML forms instead of tables? Now the general topic of tables vs divs/CSS has previously been discussed, for example:

So this isn't intended to be a general discussion about CSS vs tables for layout. This is simply the solution to one problem. I tried various solutions to the above using CSS including:

  • Float right for the button or a div containing the button;
  • Position relative for the button; and
  • Position relative+absolute.

None of these solutions were satisfactory for different reasons. For example the relative positioning resulted in a z-index issue where my dropdown menu appeared under the content.

So I ended up going back to:

<style type="text/css">
.group-header { background-color: yellow; width: 100%; }
.group-header td { padding: 8px; }
.group-title { text-align: left; font-weight: bold; }
.group-buttons { text-align: right; }
</style>
<table class="group-header">
<tr>
  <td class="group-title">Title</td>
  <td class="group-buttons"><input
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2 Answers

3

I would recommend not using a table in this instance, because that is not tabular data; it's purely presentational to have the button located at the far right. This is what I'd do to duplicate your table structure (change to a different H# to suit where you are in your site's hierarchy):

<style>
  .group-header { background: yellow; zoom: 1; padding: 8px; }
  .group-header:after { content: "."; display: block; height: 0; clear: both; visibility: hidden; }
  /* set width appropriately to allow room for button */
  .group-header h3 { float: left; width: 300px; }
  /* set line-height or margins to align with h3 baseline or middle */
  .group-header input { float: right; }
</style>

<div class="group-header">
  <h3>This is my title</h3>
  <input type="button" value="Collapse"/>
</div>

If you want true vertical alignment in the middle (ie, if the text wraps the button is still middle-aligned with respect to both lines of text), then you either need to do a table or work something with position: absolute and margins. You can add position: relative to your drop-down menu (or more likely its parent) in order to pull it into the same ordering level as the buttons, allowing you to bump it above them with z-index, if it comes to that.

Note that you don't need width: 100% on the div because it's a block-level element, and zoom: 1 makes the div behave like it has a clearfix in IE (other browsers pick up the actual clearfix). You also don't need all those extraneous classes if you're targeting things a bit more specifically, although you might need a wrapper div or span on the button to make positioning easier.

answered 2009-02-07T02:57:59.437
2
<div class="group-header">
    <input type="button" name="Button" value="Button" style="float:right" />
    <span>Title</span>
</div>
answered 2009-02-07T02:09:35.977

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