Topic: Table enhancements

I registered on these forums to draw some attention on a couple of really interesting and useful CSS and JavaScript tricks which will make PunBB easier to use.

In a recent article on A List Apart, Christian Heilmann writes about using a table ruler in tables to make reading data in tables easier. You can try it for yourself on the row rollover table demo page.

But that's not all... while writing this post I remembered another article on A List Apart which is also quite useful for making tables easier to read. It is the zebra tables article. In zebra tables, every other row gets a different colour, which makes it easier for the reader to follow the line. There's a zebra table example for those who want to see how it looks.

These two tricks are compatible with the current web standards, and since PunBB is a web standards-aware forum, I hope these two techniques are useful.

Re: Table enhancements

I'm not so sure about table rulers. I personally don't like them and feel that they actually is bad for useability and not the opposite. When something on a webpage changes color when I hover the mouse pointer over it, I instinctively think it's something I can click on.

"Zebra tables" are sometimes nice and some parts of PunBB use them (this page for instance). I've tried it on the board and forum index as well, but I think it gives the pages a more cluttered look.

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."