WHY TABLES FOR LAYOUT IS STUPID...

"Why tables for layout is stypid: problems defined, solutions offered" is a presentation-tutorial on the web that I found incredibly (user) friendly and useful in order to understand why tables (which I have been using for ages to develop web-spaces; btw, five years ago I thought,..., no, I was adamant that using layers for page layout was the wrong thing to do as it didn't -then? - provide me with the degree of control in how page elements would render/appear, that is, the presentational-morphological aspect of the webpage, that I wanted; but then again, back then I was completely unaware of CSS and its potential) do not match well with CSS. Sure enough, the tutorial is full of "biz talk" which is at times almost annoying (due to being repeated a time too many) and could have been avoided, yet it's oriented toward the business-minded web developer, and this somewhat justifies the tone and the phraseology used throughout the text.

Also apropos, see:

• Toss out your Tables! CSS is the scene!
• WWW pages and CSS: Tables, CSS and Netscape
  

UNIPAGE - A PDF ALTERNATIVE?

"Unipage recently released a beta version of its Unipage Unifier. The Unipage encoding is a way to encode a full page with its images, CSS, Javascript, Flash, and whatnot, into just one HTML file. The 'Unipage Unifier' program instantly turns any online or local page into a 'Unipage' that can be viewed directly in a browser. It saves the mess of files when you normally save a complete web page, but maybe the bigger scoop is that now people can use 'Unipages' to send content rich documents instead of PDF. But Unipages are superior to PDF in their ability to hold functionality (Javascript), Flash animations and practically anything normally possible in a web page. Together with any program that can export into HTML you can get fully styled, dynamic, portable documents instantly. And it's free." Good luck taking down the installed base of PDF. [via /.]