My Weblog, with table trick

Today's posts

This text will be displayed first in Lynx and read first in JAWS, even though it is visually positioned to the right of the navigation bar. This benefits blind users, and it also benefits you, since search engines give higher precedence to keywords that come earlier in your page.

  1. The non-tricky version of this page. Same layout.
  2. The non-tricky version in Lynx. Yuck.
  3. The table trick in Lynx. Much better.

Here's the basic concept. Instead of the obvious table layout:

<table>
<tr>
  <td valign="top" align="left" width="25%">
    ... navigation bar ...
  </td>
  <td valign="top" align="left">
    ... main content ...
  </td>
</tr>
</table>

Do this instead:

<table>
<tr>
  <!-- spacer GIF in upper-left cell -->
  <td><img src="/images/1.gif" width="1" height="1" alt=""></td>
  <!-- main content cell first, with rowspan=2 -->
  <td valign="top" align="left" rowspan="2">
    ... main content ...
  </td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td valign="top" align="left" width="25%">
    ... navigation bar ...
  </td>
</tr>
</table>

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.

Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

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