HTML/XHTML:Tables for Layout

History
At the beginning of the Internet in 1989, little thought was given to the aesthetic layout of a webpage. The content of the page and the hypertext capabilities were all that mattered. It wasnt until the first web browser (Mosaic) was released, that it was realised that layout and graphics would enhance a websites useability and marketability. Design was on the up. Tables made their appearance with HTML2.0 and enhanced with HTML3.2.

Tables made it easy to give structure to a page, enclose graphics and generally give order. As designers skills progressed, it became apparent that tables alone werent going to be enough to meet current needs. To alleviate this, the W3C introduced layers with the new CSS specifications, and support for layers was adopted by both Netscape and Microsoft with version 4 of their browsers.