Is there an Automated way to convert a Table based HTML page to purely CSS based page ?

Question

I have a Web Site thats designed using traditional tags but I need to convert to CSS based tags. Is there a better way (Free Software / Tool) to do this rather than taking one tag at a time and converting it ?

Thanks Rahul

Answer 1

I'd say not. If there was, avoid it. Part of the point of moving away from tables-based mark-up is to improve accessibility, which requires a human eye. eg. content priority and SEO.

Answer 2

Generally no, because the switch from visually based table layout to semantic based CSS layout is more than just a rearrangement of code.

Typically you need to rethink the structure of the page in terms of the data rather than in terms of the grid, and that can only be a manual process

Answer 3

No that is not possible, or even a good idea. By CSS based tags I assume you mean using divs for layout rather than tables (as CSS can be applied to tables).

I recommend you start over, it's the only way to do it properly, but you can make use of existing CSS frameworks such as the http://960.gs to get you going and also look at using things like YUIs reset and fonts stylesheet for a good base foundation that starts you on a level playing field with most modern browsers

Answer 4

There is no automatic way to replace a table with DIVs+CSS since DIVs and tables have a different features. You can't replace one for the other (otherwise, the W3C would have dropped support for one of them).

A lot of people tell you "tables are bad" which is wrong. The correct saying is "dozens of nested tables are bad". There are some things DIV with CSS can do but tables definitely have their place. So the goal is to reduce the number of tables necessary for your layout not to get rid of them altogether.