As a trainer I've been seen the demand for CSS training increase dramatically over the last year as more and more people are switched on to the fact that it's the way websites should be made.

Whether its peer pressure, client pressure or boss pressure it doesn't really matter, web developers are now waking up to the fact that the old methods of table based design are no longer appropriate.

The problem is that people might know CSS based design is the "right" thing to do but as soon as they start it they're hit with a steep learning curve. Coupled with the poor browser support on certain browsers and I've seen many people turned off. Which is a shame.

There's loads of resources out there on the web for learning CSS based design, but most just dive in at the deep end, when I think a more gradual introduction is needed. With this in mind I've written an article over on the Net Res site where I layout a systematic approach to incorporating more CSS into your designs, while phasing out tables.

So whether you're learning CSS based design out of a passion for web standards or simply guilt at using "evil" tables for too long, you might want to check it out:

Moving from Tables to CSS design

It's interesting that the Bushido Shoshinsu (the code of the Samurai) claims that most good deeds are done out of wanting to appear to do the right thing in front of others, as opposed to a genuine desire to do good. It's also argues that there's nothing wrong with this however, and as long as the right path is taken then we can overlook the reasoning. Now I can't recall anything about web standards in the Bushido Shoshinsu, but you get the idea.