I have'nt tried the new VS 2005 yet, but I know from experience that anything before that should'nt be used for CSS. I would suggest you use the drag and drop to put everything on your page and then redo the positioning with hand coded CSS. You could then use absolute positioning, relative positioning, float, etc. for your layout.
The way you do your layout will depend on what type of layout you want to do. If it's a simple 2 columns layout with an header and a footer, you'll be better off with floating. But if your layout is complexe and require precise positioning, it will be easier with absolutes.
CSS is a wide technologie, here's some web sites that will help you started.
http://www.w3schools.com/c
http://www.csszengarden.co
http://glish.com/css/ Layout techniques
http://www.alistapart.com/
Once you get started with CSS you'll want to check this mailing list for answers : http://css-discuss.incutio
And you can always ask your questions here, we are always happy to help
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by: D4LyPosted on 2006-02-06 at 13:15:10ID: 15886941
Hi tradeline-
No, using css instead of tables does not mean absolute positioning. I believe Google uses position: absolute for the dropdown menu you see, but it's likely contained within another element with position: relative; applied to it (though this is only a guess based on similar solutions). The absolute positioning of the nested element there simply positions it absolutely in relation to the upper left corner of the parent container and is necessary to achieve the desired effect for them.
_Usually_ there is a better approach to designing in css if you're using position: absolute...and these better approaches usually will look the same across more browsers. IMO, if you're using absolute positioning for everything, it has just as many negatives as using tables. Yes, you may have a lower filesize for your pages using css, but using absolute positioning ruins all flexibility you have with your site design at present and in the future (it will possibly be more difficult to redesign later) Further, with absolute positioning for all of your content you could arrange your content in your source code such that when the styles are turned off, the flow of content is impossible to follow, and the pages may become unreadable. Personally, aside from the filesize you save, designing in css is pointless if you're going to rely on absolute positioning for your layouts.
You should strive to use absolute positioning only when absolutely necessary. Not seeing your specific application, it does sound like one of those _necessary_ cases, as it is how many other live search/drop down/etc... systems tend to be implemented.
Just my 2 cents.
-D4