Question : Table alignment in Dreamweaver

TO ALL:
I have been painfully trying to make my new site in Dreamweaver, everything has been going well except for alignment issues.  I am still trying to figure out the logic behind this and the solution, can someone please help me understand and fix this?  

Problem: I create a table in Dreamweaver that is 1000px wide (for the entire site), and within that table I create a new table that is 1000px wide and height is 400 for my banner.  Below that I put my menu bar 1000px x 28px, below that I put a table that is split into two columns 500w and 500w.  When I put text into the left column, it looks/renders fine, however when I add my graphic to the right column at 500px wide, it completely misaligns the entire page?!?!   This is baffling to me.  I am pretty confident half of 1000 is 500, so why would this occur?  

Plus: inside my text box the actual text ends up centering itself from the top and bottom of the cell, any ideas why?  Is there a tweak somewhere that fixes this?  I want the text at the top of the cell.  

Lastly, I am new to tables, I have used CSS in the past, once, and I am wondering if I am better off using CSS or am I better off using tables?  

Any and all thoughts or ideas are very welcome.

Thanks...

Answer : Table alignment in Dreamweaver

You're not allowing for margins and padding.  Normal alignment for text in a <td> is vertically centered.  Use valign="top" or use 'style="vertical-align: top;" ' to keep it at the top.  Details are everything.  And check your page in 'real' browsers before you're done.   W3 Schools can answer a lot of questions for you: http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp