I used to do a few websites years ago and only have got back interested recently after some friends asked me to do some sites.
I'm just wondering though with technology always advancing what peoples opinions are on which layouts are better CSS or tables. I have been experimenting with some simple CSS templates I've made and have found them ok. Previously I used to do all layouts in tables but does this seem outdated.
Thank you for any thoughts.

I think your question is more philosophical. Being a philosopher, let me give my two cents. I believe the general opinion is that tables are more amateurish these days. With CSS taking over, and with all of the creative options available for CSS, most people push for it. With that said, it does not address the issue of what is best, only what is preferred. It is hard to argue with the consistency among browsers with tables; however, they are severely limited in what they can do.

What seems to be happening is those who develop templates for others to use generally use tables, for those developers who build websites for clients and such tend to use CSS because layout changes are much easier. A great website to visit looking at the great artistic advantages to CSS (as well as its flexibility) is www.csszengarden.com.

They also offer free CSS to play around with.

Thanks for your two cents Eric (how much exactly is two cents anyway - I'm English so I don't know these things). I'll check that site out later but I gotta go now.

One of the really main reasons that tables have been getting pushed aside and replaced with CSS is because of the ease of updating the sites. With tables you still have to copy and paste all the code to the various pages, etc., and every time you make a change to your structure you have to update each page accordingly same as you always have had to.

Using CSS you can setup your structure in one file and just like any other styling done in the CSS file, now your structure is also quick and easy fixes due to one change changes all pages for that also. I think that is the main advantage over tables for structuring.

This is exactly why tables are mainly used in templates (usually no more than five pages). When you start to research CSS look at using floats for postioning. Big Fan.

Whenever I get contacted to make a change to their website, I take a look and stop the first time I see <table> and tell them no thanks but thanks for contacting me.

I'd do the same if i didnt need the business.

Basically, css has been around for about fifteen years, even before xhtml, so tables for design are definitely outdated. Unfortunately, some web courses still teach the table-based method, and it's harder to learn css after learning tables than if one doesn't know about design tables to begin with.

EDIT: One exception I would make is with emails where you want to achieve a look that won't appear correctly across email clients if you only use css, because some email clients (Outlook 2007) have actually moved backwards in css support.

using layers are a great advance in building websites. This is the overall replacement for tables. I find there is a need for both in a website.

Actually, layers, or absolutely positioned divs, should be avoided whenever possible. They have their place, but often they end up being used where they shouldn't be, and then pages break when viewed with different font sizes. This is why VSD only works at 96dpi.