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Web Workshop 159

elcome to this month's Web Workshop. Last month we looked at the use of tables to constrain the layout of a web page so that you can make it look more attractive to the reader. This month we're going to build on that knowledge of tables and see how you can use pictures to both improve the look and layout of a page.

The layout? Yes, as we showed last month, web developers will use and abuse all the features of HTML and browsers to bully the pages into doing what they want. Just as last month we looked at how tables can be used to do much more than display rows and columns of data in their traditional role, this month we'll show you how images can be used in conjunction with tables to create pixel accurate pages that work even in pre-version 4 browsers.

Much like special effects in the best Hollywood films, the best picture usage can sometimes be when the reader doesn't even know that they are there. Unless you're exceptionally good, or unless you've already looked at the source code, you won't know, for example, that there are in fact eight pictures on this page. That's eight distinct files, yet with a total file size of only 7,362 bytes - just under two seconds of download time for most users with a 56K modem.

It's impossible to calculate how many times the files are repeated as backgrounds on this page (see last month's Web Workshop for information on tiling backgrounds). On top of that there is one single file which is stretched to different dimensions and repeated in several places to fix the layout as we want it.

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