HTML Basic

HTML Advanced

HTML Media

HTML XHTML

HTML Examples

HTML References

HTML5

Chinese Version

HTML Layouts

Web page layout is very important to make your website look good.

Design your webpage layout very carefully.

Website Layouts

Most websites have put their content in multiple columns (formatted like a magazine or newspaper).

Multiple columns are created by using <table> or <div> tags. Some CSS are normally also added to position elements, or to create backgrounds or colorful look for the pages.

HTML Layouts - Using Tables

The simplest way of creating layouts is by using the HTML <table> tag.

The following example uses a table with 3 rows and 2 columns - the first and last row spans both columns using the colspan attribute:

The HTML code above will produce the following result:

Note: Even though it is possible to create nice layouts with HTML tables, tables were designed for presenting tabular data - NOT as a layout tool!

HTML Layouts - Using Div Elements

The div element is a block level element used for grouping HTML elements.

The following example uses five div elements to create a multiple column layout, creating the same result as in the previous example:

The HTML code above will produce the following result:

HTML Layout - Useful Tips

Tip: The biggest advantage of using CSS is that, if you place the CSS code in an external style sheet, your site becomes MUCH EASIER to maintain. You can change the layout of all your pages by editing one file. To learn more about CSS, study our CSS tutorial.

Tip: Because advanced layouts take time to create, a quicker option is to use a template. Search Google for free website templates (these are pre-built website layouts you can use and customize).

HTML Layout Tags