Well, I adapted a custom table-based theme to Radmod.com tonight, and changed the way the site looks quite a bit. I adapted a table-based 3-column theme from my business website

More Wordpress coding adventures -

• For more coding adventures, broken plugins, fixed stuff, frustrations, etc, read about my upgrade to Wordpress 2 from 1.51.
• MORE: I’m blogging about Wordpress as a Content Management System
• ALSO, I’ve been working on re-coding my main business HTML website into a Wordpress website. My old-fashioned HTML business site is at TimsLaw.com. The 3-column HTML “theme” for Timslaw is comprised of HTML Tables, and looks a lot like the new RadMod theme. I blog about the conversion: Read about my re-coding adventures in my fairly extensive updated blog article.

I’ve been adapting the TimsLaw.com HTML theme in order to use it on a Wordpress version of Timslaw.com [currently in BETA at www.MissouriJobLaw.com]. Tonight, I decided to strip down the adapted TimsLaw.com table-based theme further and then applied the theme to my Radmod blog, as a testing ground.

I figured that if I had the same theme on the blog, I could have extra opportunities to try stuff out, without too much threat to the business website.

Feedback is welcome.

Here’s a screenshot of the original RadMod div-based theme, the theme that lived for almost one year. This old theme might make a comeback from time to time, primarily when I am tweaking my new theme and want the site to stay accessible during development.

Once you have multiple themes that work, you can switch themes with a single mouse click in the Admin interface.

Table-based themes are not as “cool”, but they are more reliable than div-based themes, for 3-column displays

I have used table-based themes for 4 years on my business website. I like the reliability.

In playing with DIV based 3 column themes, I’ve found them too prone to breaking and allowing content to scroll off into other columns, or I’ve had problems with “fluidity” across different screen resolutions. Also, different browsers have quirks that must be coded around, and I’m NOT a PRO!!!

Arguments in favor of using TABLES to layout a 3 - column page:

• All browsers will support the old fashioned TABLE layout, without many quirks.
• Very little need to worry about what browser your visitors have, because you are not doing anything cutting edge with your layout.
• Layout is completely fluid across all screen resolutions (like with some DIV schemes)
• It’s WAY easier for novices like me to grasp TABLE coding than it is to learn the complexities of DIV coding.
• Consider that to do a DIV based 3 column layout well, you must know the ins and outs of fancy CSS coding: RELATIVE vs ABSOLUTE, Z-INDEX, FLOAT, complex MARGIN declarations, etc…. and then code around browser quirks. I ran into trouble real fast in trying to convert my Timslaw.com theme into Wordpress. So I reverted to safe TABLES. Don’t tell me about how easy basic DIV coding CAN BE - I had a 3 column DIV theme for a year, and it was very easy, unless I wanted to make a radical change, and then I had to untangle all the CSS commands about Relatives - Absolutes, floats, Z-indexes, etc …… Over my head!

I remembered something from my own experience: Once I got my basic 3-column design done, I wasn’t going to fundamentally change it. So why not code it in a safe, cross-browser, easy to comprehend (for novices) manner?