How to achieve table layout without using tables?

Question

In the name of progress (and learning) how can I rid tables from my code and achieve the same layout?

For example, here is my table:

<table cellspacing="0px">
    <tr>
        <td>
            <img src="http://www.poltairhomes.com/images/footerlogo.png" />
        </td>
        <td id="footertext">
            <p>Poltair Homes Plc<br />Registered Office: The Old Chapel, Greenbottom, Truro, Cornwall, TR4 8QP.<br />Registered in England & Wales: 3955425<br />www.poltairhomes.com<br />info@poltairhomes.com</p>
        </td>
        <td id="footertext">
            <p>Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Sitemap</p>
        </td>
        <td id="footertext">
            <p>SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER:</p>
            <img src="http://www.poltairhomes.com/images/signup(temp).png" />
        </td>
    </tr>
</table>

And the relevant CSS:

.footertext {
    margin: 0;
    padding:0 5px 0 5px;
    color: #AAA;
    font-size: 10px;
    font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    text-align:center;
    border-left: 1px solid #CCC;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/userdude/tYjKw/

Answer 1

CSS:

.table {
  display: table;
}
.table-row {
  display: table-row;
}
.table-cell {
  display: table-cell;
}

HTML:

<div class="table">
  <div class="table-row">
    <div class="table-cell">Table cell 1</div>
    <div class="table-cell">Table cell 2</div>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 2

<div class="table">
    <div class="row">
       <div class="cell twocol">
           <span>Content1</span>
       </div>
       <div class="cell twocol">
           <span>Content2</span>
       </div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
       <div class="cell onecol">
           <span>Content3</span>
       </div>
    </div>
</div>

And the CSS

.table {width: 100%; height: 100%;}
.row {width: 100%; min-height: 1px; height: auto; margin: 0;}
.cell {float: left; margin: 0; padding: 0;}
.onecol {width: 100%;}
.twocol {width: 50%;}

I suggest you look into some gridsystems, like 960grid (http://960.gs/) or 1140grid (http://cssgrid.net/), will help you a lot.

Answer 3

Create a style as:

 .footerItem { float: left; } 

 <div class="footerItem"> <img src="http://www.poltairhomes.com/images/footerlogo.png" /> </div> <div class="footerItem"> <p>Poltair Homes Plc<br />Registered Office: The Old Chapel, Greenbottom, Truro, Cornwall, TR4 8QP.<br />Registered in England & Wales: 3955425<br />www.poltairhomes.com<br />info@poltairhomes.com</p> </div> <div class="footerItem"> <p>Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Sitemap</p> </div> <div class="footerItem"> <p>SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER:</p><img src="http://www.poltairhomes.com/images/signup(temp).png" /> </div> 

and then create your body using DIVs to separate the blocks and apply the class to each one: