Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook (Pioneering Series)

What we've accomplished in this chapter is essentially scratching the surface of what is possible when creating CSS-based layouts. The intention here is to give you a foundation on which to grow, by showing the two main methods—floating and positioning.

I hope that you'll dig deeper into what is possible with CSS layout techniques, ridding your pages of nested tables in favor of lean, structured markup that is accessible to more browsers and devices.

For more information on CSS-based layouts, be sure to check out the following resources:

• "The Layout Reservoir" (www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/): Great examples of multicolumn layouts created with absolute positioning.

• "From Table Hacks to CSS Layout: A Web Designer's Journey" (www.alistapart.com/articles/journey/): A great tutorial by Jeffrey Zeldman that chronicles the steps needed to create a two-column layout.

• "CSS Layout Techniques: For Fun and Profit" (www.glish.com/css/): Eric Costello's large resource of various CSS layouts.

• "Little Boxes" (www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html): A beautiful and simple interface to many CSS layout demonstrations by Owen Briggs.

• "CSS Zen Garden" (www.csszengarden.com/): "A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design." Cultivated by Dave Shea, the "garden" showcases cutting-edge CSS designs (including layouts, of course) submitted by readers, using a singular XHTML file. A fantastic resource to view CSS layouts at their best.