Hi,

I want to try and make some good layouts in pure XHTML and css. Anyone have any tips on how to do this?

you can download designed templates and play with them. there are many sites providing css layout examples you can freely download.

Use div's and css, not tables, that's my main advice. Try to hard code it, don't use any applications. Check out www.w3schools.com, and when you're done making it, to make it w3 valid (basically ensures it's compatible with all or most browsers) at www.w3.org. Good luck!

Use div's and css, not tables, that's my main advice.
Stop repeating others' mistakes, please.

You meant to say, use semantic HTML and separate your structure from your styling by using CSS documents. Using tables for layout is bad practice, since tables are there to display tabular data, not whole websites.

Table usage-- unfortunately not all browser producers follow the same standards where css and divs are concerned. Tables are more consistent across browsers and os environments.

Q..

Anyone who has been coding for awhile or takes pride in doing good work, will know the following is the only absolute when it comes to how Browsers display 'whatever'; the only thing you can consistently count on is that the Letters A-Z and Numbers 0-9 will show the same. Font family, size, and weight may be a bit different but an 'A' is always a 'A', a '1' is always a '1', etc. :)

Nothing wrong with using Tables in a CSS Layout because, as already mentioned, Tables should be used for Tabular display. Other than that, Google "CSS Layout Tutorials" for various sites and buy a good Book on the Subject. Believe me, you will be referencing that Book on a regular basis.

And, as with learning anything new, don't forget to practice, practice, practice. :D

unfortunately not all browser producers follow the same standards where css and divs are concerned.
That are just a few rendering mistakes which can be easily addressed through some CSS tricks every experienced html/css coder knows about. I can dwell into the good ol' tables vs semantic HTML story again, but I won't. Coding your site with semantic, valid html and clean, structured css is just better for everyone.

And, as with learning anything new, don't forget to practice, practice, practice.
Totally agree! :) I've been coding html and css for about 4 years now, and still I learn new things everyday. Keep up with sites like Alistapart, jonathan snook's blog, visit sites like w3schools.com, owsd.org, iwdn.net, vitamin, molly.com etc etc etc. html and css is great fun, once you know how to tame the inconsistent beast ;)

A great resource is #css on irc.efnet.org (irc channel, of course). There's a few guys there that are always willing to help out!

Stop repeating others' mistakes, please.

You meant to say, use semantic HTML and separate your structure from your styling by using CSS documents. Using tables for layout is bad practice, since tables are there to display tabular data, not whole websites.

I was putting it in simple terms -.-

I was putting it in simple terms -.-
So 'divs' and 'semantic html' are the same for you?

Go to www.oswd.org - i learned CSS/xHTML from the free samples/templates i downloaded from that site.