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Asked: 2026-05-15T23:00:48+00:00

Can someone show me some html to layout the following not using tables? ______________________________________

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Can someone show me some html to layout the following not using tables?

______________________________________
|_______|_____________|               |
|_______|_____________|_______________|
|_______|_____________|               |
|_______|_____________|               |
|_______|_____________|_______________|

The third column needs to span the first two “rows” and then span the next three “rows”
The first “column” needs to have the same width

I ask this because of the whole “Tables are dead for layout” argument

UPDATE:
the content of the markup has checkboxes, textboxes, and textareas

CONCLUSION:

This has been very enlightening. I believe I have been cleared up with this philosophical question.

It seems to me that the general rule should be: Don’t use tables for your entire website, if there are sections that look like a table, then use a table. Extremes of “NEVER USE A TABLE” seems impractical and theoretical. Likewise, excessive use of tables makes maintenance difficult, and dealing with 4-deep nested tables can be a real pain.

So because the layout above “looks like a table” I’m going to use a table. 🙂

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Even if the content isn’t tabular, use a table if you need to. Most of the arguments against using a table for layout are purely theoretical (are you really planning on offering more than one stylesheet for your site, for example? Do you care how your form appears semantically?) Sometimes, especially in the larger layout issues for a site, tables work much better than CSS.

    Use what works.

    Tables were often abused for layout, and most of them can be scrapped in favor of a simpler CSS layout. but occasionally, tables are the better tool.

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