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I can’t believe its not a table

Via Craig, Big John’s new CSS layout “I can’t believe it’s not a table!”. I’ve played with the key concept of this before: using a background-left image on the body and a background-right on an all-encompassing div to create the illusion of two columns stretching the length of the page, but I never got it working quite as well as this. Big John’s layout uses that trick and a few others to get it rock solid across all browsers, then explains exactly how it all works in excruciating detail. Essential reading.

Posted 31st March 2003 at 11:15 pm

This is I can’t believe its not a table by Simon Willison, posted on 31st March 2003.

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8 comments

  1. Couldn't get the link to work...are you sure it's not this one? http://www.positioniseverything.net/thr.col.stretc h.html BTW, I enjoy your blog...I've added you to my blogroll (www.ericsiegmund.com/fireant/)

    Eric - 31st March 2003 23:53 - #

  2. It's definitely the right link (see Saila.com) but the page has vanished :/

    Simon Willison - 1st April 2003 00:12 - #

  3. Er, surely it is here? I didn't think that was new myself...

    Taling of CSS layouts, <plug>Golf.Uk.Net, RED.uk.com and 19th.co.uk went live today :) </plug>

    Tom Gilder - 1st April 2003 01:33 - #

  4. Talking, too.

    Tom Gilder - 1st April 2003 01:34 - #

  5. Actually this is now the right link - take the "."s out of the filename in Simon's original link.

    Cathy - 1st April 2003 11:56 - #

  6. Thanks - fixed now.

    Simon Willison - 1st April 2003 11:57 - #

  7. Hmm, is it just me or does that non-table layout cause scrolling to stutter in mozilla? I checked the BBC site to make sure it wasn't my PC and that was nice and smooth, but everytime i visited the CSS layout it was quite clunky.

    Daniel Nolan - 1st April 2003 18:40 - #

  8. I also noticed Moz is bad scrolling. It's the BG images. On my slow box, it is VERY SLOW scrolling. Opera has the best scrolling, IMHO. BTW, there was a glitch in my new server, but all fixed now (I hope).

    Big John - 5th April 2003 20:08 - #

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