Section 3: Introduction to Tables

When <table> tags were added to the HTML protocol, there intended use was to display data in a readable format. As the Internet blossomed and more pages were created for commercial purposes, web designers began to use tables for creating page layouts. This method for creating a web page's layout was limiting as the display of the page was not uniform across browsers nor was it scalable to a visitor's screen size. With the introduction of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - which you will learn more about in future modules - web designers stopped using tables for page layout and instead began using CSS as it allowed for a more uniform display across web browsers and it allowed for scalability of pages.

The use of tables has now returned to its intended purpose: the display of data in a readable format. In this section, you will learn how to properly format tables to create visually-appealing data displays.