I am a recent convert to tableless layout. That is I use CSS and div tags to do most of my element positioning in my markup. At first it was a little tricky to get the hang of, but I can tell you now, it is a much better way to layout your documents. Not only does it give you more control but it is much more consistent from browser to browser.
I have created a script that will create a simulated table with div tags, if you are still using table layout, please take a lookhttp://www.celoxsystems.com/div_tbl_frm.html. You can fill out the web form for the size of the table, the number of rows and cols and you can make one colspan.
I welcome any comments.