css - Is it bad design to use table tags when displaying forms in html?

Question

I keep hearing that div tags should be used for layout purposes and not table tags. So does that also apply to form layout? I know a form layout is still a layout, but it seems like creating form layouts with divs requires more html and css. So with that in mind, should forms layouts use div tags instead?

Answer 1

Yes, it does apply for form layouts. Keep in mind that there are also tags like FIELDSET and LABEL which exist specifically for adding structure to a form, so it's not really a question of just using DIV. You should be able to markup a form with pretty minimal HTML, and let CSS do the rest of the work. E.g.:

<fieldset>
    <div>
         <label for="nameTextBox">Name:</label>
         <input id="nameTextBox" type="text" />
    </div>
    ...
</fieldset>