How to switch from table to div for FORM layout?

Answer 1

I've used basically the same idea for creating a tableless form layout. But, I use an unordered list to hold my labels and inputs. For example:

<form>
    <fieldset>
        <ul class="formFields">
            <li>
                <label for="user">
                    Name</label><input type="text" name="user" value="" /></li>
            <li>
                <label for="emailaddress">
                    Email Address:</label><input type="text" name="emailaddress" value="" /></li>
            <li>
                <label for="comments">
                    Comments:</label><textarea name="comments"></textarea></li>
            <li>
                <label for="terms">
                    Agree to Terms?</label><input type="checkbox" name="terms" class="boxes" /></li>
        </ul>
        <p>
            <input type="submit" name="submitbutton" id="submitbutton" value="Submit" /></p>
    </fieldset>
</form>

The CSS styles can be just the same as what pcampbell has used in his example. The only difference for mine would be the addition of a style for the UL such as:

ul {list-style: none; margin: 0; padding: 0;}

Answer 2

Based on @p.cambell answer and the implementation with css, I wrote this code in asp.net for a login popup screen:

css

.flotante-login {
    border:solid 2px #b7ddf2;
    border-radius: 5px;
    padding: 15px;
    background:#ebf4fb;
}
.loginBox {
    margin: 0 auto;
    width: 400px;
    padding: 10px;
}
#login{
}
#login h1 {
    font-size: 18px;
    font-weight: bold;
    margin-bottom: 15px;
}
#login p{
       font-size:11px;
       color:#666666;
       margin-bottom:20px;
       border-bottom:solid 1px #b7ddf2;
       padding-bottom:10px;
   }
   #login label{
       display:block;
       font-weight:bold;
       text-align:right;
       width:140px;
       float:left;
   }
   #login .small{
       color:#666666;
 display:block;
       font-size:11px;
       font-weight:normal;
       text-align:right;
       width:140px;
   }
   #login input{
       float:left;
       font-size:12px;
       padding:4px 2px;
       border:solid 1px #aacfe4;
       width:200px;
       margin:2px 0 20px 10px;
   }
   #login a{
       clear:both;
       width:125px;
       padding: 10px;
       background-color: #E2B66B;
       color:#FFFFFF;
       text-align:center;
       text-decoration: none !important;
       line-height:30px;
       font-weight:bold;
       color: #FFF !important;
       border-radius: 5px;
   }

aspx page:

<div id="popupLogin" class="flotante-login" style="display:none;">
    <asp:Panel ID="panelLogin" runat="server" DefaultButton="lbLogin">
        <div id="login" class="loginBox">
            <h1>Acceso</h1>
            <label>
                Usuario:
                <span class="small">Ingresa tu email</span>
            </label>
            <asp:TextBox ID="txtUsuario" runat="server" MaxLength="250"></asp:TextBox>
            <label>
                Contraseña:
                <span class="small">Ingresa tu contraseña</span>
            </label>
            <asp:TextBox ID="txtPassword" runat="server" MaxLength="8" TextMode="Password"></asp:TextBox>
            <asp:LinkButton ID="lbLogin" Text="Ingresa" runat="server"></asp:LinkButton>
            <div class="spacer"></div>
        </div>
    </asp:Panel>
</div>

The result is:

Answer 3

Consider this article titled Tableless forms using CSS from CssDrive.

A little bit of style really helps. I've been refactoring/replacing all my table'd forms with the pattern found in the article above.

With the following code:

• asp:textbox works perfectly, needs no modification for all kinds of textboxes
• asp:button works perfectly, needs no modification
• asp:checkbox would likely need modification, perhaps wrapped in another div with a special style

Here's the basic example presented:

The CSS:

<style type="text/css">

label{
float: left;
width: 120px;
font-weight: bold;
}

input, textarea{
width: 180px;
margin-bottom: 5px;
}

textarea{
width: 250px;
height: 150px;
}

.boxes{
width: 1em;
}

#submitbutton{
margin-left: 120px;
margin-top: 5px;
width: 90px;
}

br{
clear: left;
}

</style>

The HTML:

<form>

<label for="user">Name</label>
<input type="text" name="user" value="" /><br />

<label for="emailaddress">Email Address:</label>
<input type="text" name="emailaddress" value="" /><br />

<label for="comments">Comments:</label>
<textarea name="comments"></textarea><br />

<label for="terms">Agree to Terms?</label>
<input type="checkbox" name="terms" class="boxes" /><br />

<input type="submit" name="submitbutton" id="submitbutton" value="Submit" />

</form>

Answer 4

Consider this article at Woork titled Clean and Pure CSS Form Design

I've implemented this style, including the fieldset and tweaked all the styles appropriately for the look/feel that was required.

Consider using <label runat="server"> to inherit the style of the label via CSS instead of asp:label. Alternatively you could put your asp:label within label tags. Since asp:label emits <span>, that would simply result in a set of <label><span></span></label>.

Answer 5

Extract from my code:

<div>
    <label for="Password"> Password:</label>
    <input id="Password" type="password" name="Password"/>
    <label for="ConfirmationPassword"> Confirmation: </label>
    <input id="ConfirmationPassword" type="password" name="ConfirmationPassword"/>
<div class="clear"/>
</div>
<div>
    <label for="FirstName"> Prénom:</label>
    <input id="FirstName" type="text" value="" name="FirstName"/>
    <label for="LastName"> Nom:</label>
    <input id="LastName" type="text" value="" name="LastName"/>
    <div class="clear"/>
    </div>
</div>

with the following css:

label {
    float:left;
    margin-right:0.5em;
    margin-top:10px;
    padding-left:5px;
    text-align:justify;
    width:200px;
}

input[type="text"], textarea, input[type="password"], input[type="checkbox"], select {
    float:left;
    margin-right:10px;
    margin-top:5px;
}

.clear {
    clear:both;
}