it's not CSS that is at fault here.
It's the most visible proponents' fault. Because they have created the impression (in people not familiar with the concept of stylesheets) that CSS is about NOT using tables for layout. And that's just plain wrong.
CSS is about automating presentational tasks in webpages. That simple.
In your particular case, just go ahead and create a simple table to hold the three columns and then style them to your heart's delight.
A good, solid example that VALIDATES, IS ACCESSIBLE AND WORKS without problems or contortions:
<div id="header">Header here</div>
<table>
<tr>
<td class="someclass">Column1</td>
<td class="somethingelse">Column2</td>
<td class="anotherstyle">Column3</td>
</tr>
</table>
<div id="footer">Footer here, if needed</div>
Hope it helps.
irvin
>Sorry - just venting.
>
>Every time I get into this it amazes me that CSS made it so damn difficult
>to do one of the most common layouts online: a full-width header, two
>equal-height (despite content) columns (one for navigation and one for
>content), and a full-width footer. In other words, this:
>
><table>
> <tr colspan="2"><td>Header</td></tr>
> <tr> <td>Navigation</td>
> <td>Content</td>
> </tr>
> <tr colspan="2"><td>Footer</td></tr>
></table>
>
>How could a group spend upwards of three years defining CSS and not consider
>that people might want to use it to build this kind of layout? Especially
>when so many (perhaps most) sites use a variation on this theme?
>
>I've yet to find a simple, no hack way to achieve this and it's driving me
>nuts. You can do it (sorta) but after you add in all the browser hacks,
>goofy code and workarounds you still end up with something that takes 10
>times the code of a simple table layout and degrades poorly to older
>browsers.
>
>I love the idea of CSS. I love the idea of separating content from
>presentation. But Christ-on-a-crutch why can't our replacement technology
>elegantly handle the simplest and most common layout ever!
>
>Rant over...
>
>Jim Davis
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