Demonstration of page layout methods
to allow margins for a border.

HTML language coding started with a goal of getting simple text documents to display on any computer so users could exchange documents and ideas. Until the HTML 3.2 specification introduced Cascading Style Sheets (css) and Style Languages, there was no easy tool for designers to use to setup a Webpage with the top, bottom, left and right margins we are all used to seeing on a printed page.

The following paragraphs discuss <STYLE>, <TABLE> and <BLOCKQUOTE> as page design elements. Examples of pages with Style and various table setups are provided. Note: The viewer must examine the example pages source code to understand what produces the displayed margins.

While Style is the "only defined way" to set up a formatted Webpage approximately half the Internet browsers in use today do not understand the Style Language coding. If we chose to use Style, we also need to set up an alternate page for visitors with "older" browsers. (Show me margin layouts with Style!)

Designers have developed two major "work-around" layout tools. The first and probably the most common is a Table. Various page layouts have used but the most common are the one, two and three column table. The downside to using a table is the time delay introduced by the visitor's browser while it sets up the table in memory. Browsers must download EVERY cell in a table and calculate its display width before the browser can set up the very first row of the table. If the page designer doesn't take the time delay into account, our visitor winds up looking at a blank screen for an extended period waiting, waiting, waiting, and waiting ZZZZz!!! before anything at all is displayed. It is best to break a large page into smaller pages or sections (each with its own table) so our visitors have the first section to read while later ones are still setting up. (Show me margin layouts using tables!)

The second "work-around" is to use <BLOCKQUOTE> to introduce a page margin. This does work for most browsers but it is not defined in the HTML specification. The page designer must understand that any margin introduced by Blockquote is entirely at the discretion of the browsers' programmer. In fact, the latest HTML specification contains a footnote warning against the use of Blockquote for indenting. (Blockquote is not demonstrated in this section.)

This page is laid out using a three-column table. Original layout design demonstration by Lee Zion, Oct 1999, for the COGenWeb.

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