In the past, screen readers and other accessibility software had a difficult time handling tables in an efficient fashion. To some extent, this became handled in screen readers by the reader switching between a "table" mode and a "layout" mode based on what it saw inside the table. This was often wrong, and so the users had to manually switch the mode when navigating through tables. In any case, the large, often highly nested tables were, and to a large extent, are still very difficult to navigate through using a screen reader.

The same is true when divs or other block-level elements are used to recreate tables and are highly nested. The purpose of divs is to be used as a fomating and layout element, and as such, are intended used to hold similar information, and lay it out on the screen for visual users. When a screen reader encounters a page, it often ignores any layout information, both CSS based, as well as html attribute based(This isn't true for all screen readers, but for the most popular ones, like JAWS, Windows Eyes, and Orca for Linux it is).

为此，表格式数据，也就是逻辑上有意义的在二维或多维维度中排序的数据，具有某种标题，最好放在表中，并使用div来管理页面上内容的布局。(另一种思考“表格数据”的方式是尝试以图表形式绘制它……如果你不能，它可能不是最好的表示在一个表中)

Finally, with a table-based layout, in order to achieve a fine-grained control of the position of elements on the page, highly nested tables are often used. This has two effects: 1.) Increased code size for each page - Since navigation and common structure is often done with the tables, the same code is sent over the network for each request, whereas a div/css based layout pulls the css file over once, and then uses less wordy divs. 2.) Highly nested tables take much longer for the client's browser to render, leading to slightly slower load times.

在这两种情况下，“最后一英里”带宽的增加，以及更快的个人电脑缓解了这些因素，但它们仍然是许多网站存在的问题。

With all of this in mind, as others have said, tables are easier, because they are more grid-oriented, allowing for less thought. If the site in question is not expected to be around long, or will not be maintained, it might make sense to do what is easiest, because it might be the most cost effective. However, if the anticipated userbase might include a substantial portion of handicapped individuals, or if the site will be maintained by others for a long time, spending the time up front to do things in a concise, accessible way may payoff more in the end.

使用表格布局的工具可能会因为创建布局所需的大量代码而变得异常沉重。SAP的Netweaver Portal默认使用TABLE来布局页面。

在我目前的工作中，生产SAP门户有一个主页，它的HTML超过60K，有7个表那么深，在页面中有3次。再加上Javascript，误用了16个iframe，其中有类似的表格问题，CSS过重等，页面重量超过5MB。

花点时间降低页面重量，这样你就可以利用带宽与用户进行互动，这是值得的。

对我来说，一个巨大的问题是，表，特别是嵌套表，需要更长的时间来呈现比一个正确布局的css实现。(你可以让css一样慢)。

所有浏览器呈现css的速度都更快，因为每个div都是一个单独的元素，所以用户在阅读时可以加载屏幕。(对于庞大的数据集等)。我在那个实例中使用了css而不是表格，甚至没有处理布局。

嵌套的表(单元格中的表等)直到找到最后一个“/table”才会呈现到浏览器窗口。更糟糕的是，定义不清的表有时甚至无法呈现!或者当它发生的时候，事情就会不正常。(没有正确地与“TD”等共进)

我在大多数情况下使用表格，但当涉及到大数据和希望为最终用户快速呈现屏幕时，我尽最大努力利用CSS所提供的东西。

我曾经处理过一个包含6层嵌套表的网站，这个网站是由一些应用程序生成的，并且生成了无效的HTML，事实上，我花了3个小时的时间来纠正它，因为一个小的改变。

这当然是边缘情况，但是基于表的设计是不可维护的。如果你使用css，你分离了样式，所以在修复HTML时，你不必担心破坏。

同样，用JavaScript试试这个方法。将单个表单元格从一个位置移动到另一个表中的另一个位置。执行起来相当复杂，div/span只需要复制粘贴即可。

“我的老板在乎吗?”

如果我是你的老板。你会在乎的。,)如果你珍视你的生命。

I still don't quite understand how divs / CSS make it easier to change a page design when you consider the amount of testing to ensure the changes work on all browsers, especially with all the hacks and so on. Its a hugely frustrating and tedious process which wastes large amounts of time and money. Thankfully the 508 legislation only applies to the USA (land of the free - yeah right) and so being as I am based in the UK, I can develop web sites in whatever style I choose. Contrary to popular (US) belief, legislation made in Washington doesn't apply to the rest of the world - thank goodness for that. It must have been a good day in the world of web design the day the legislation came into force. I think I'm becoming increasingly cynical as I get older with 25 years in the IT industry but I feel sure this kind of legislation is just to protect jobs. In reality anyone can knock together a reasonable web page with a couple of tables. It takes a lot more effort and knowledge to do this with DIVs / CSS. In my experience it can take hours and hours Googling to find solutions to quite simple problems and reading incomprehensible articles in forums full of idealistic zealots all argueing about the 'right' way to do things. You can't just dip your toe in the water and get things to work properly in every case. It also seems to me that the lack of a definitive guide to using DIVS / CSS "out of the box", that applies to all situations, working on browsers, and written using 'normal' language with no geek speak, also smells of a bit of protectionism. I'm an application developer and I would say it takes almost twice as long to figure out layout problems and test against all browsers than it does to create the basic application, design and implement business objects, and create the database back end. My time = money, both for me and my customers alike so I am sorry if I don't reject all the pro DIV / CSS arguments in favour of cutting costs and providing value for money for my customers. Maybe its just the way that developers minds work, but it seems to me far easier to change a complex table structure than it is to modify DIVs / CSS. Thankfully it now appears that a solution to these issues is now available - its called WPF.

看这个重复的问题。

你忘记的一项是可访问性。例如，如果你需要使用屏幕阅读器，基于表格的布局就不能很好地转换。如果您使用政府，则可能需要支持可访问的浏览器，如屏幕阅读器。

我也认为你低估了你在问题中提到的一些事情的影响。例如，如果您既是设计人员又是程序员，您可能没有充分了解它如何将表示和内容分开。但一旦你进入一个商店，他们是两个不同的角色，优势就开始变得清晰起来。

如果你知道你在做什么并且有好的工具，CSS在布局方面确实比表格有显著的优势。虽然每一件物品本身都不能证明放弃餐桌是合理的，但总的来说还是值得的。