book

HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition

by Chuck Musciano, Bill Kennedy

October 2006

Intermediate to advanced

680 pages

21h 44m

English

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

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HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition
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Preface
Our Audience
Text Conventions
Versions and Semantics
HTML Versus XHTML
Deprecated FeaturesA Definitive Guide
Using Code Examples
Safari® Enabled
Comments and Questions
Acknowledgments

1. HTML, XHTML, and the World Wide Web
1.1. The Internet1.1.1. In the Beginning1.1.2. HTML and the Web1.1.3. Golden Threads
1.2. Talking the Internet Talk
1.2.1. Clients, Servers, and Browsers1.2.2. The Flow of Information1.2.3. Beneath the Web1.2.4. Standards Organizations1.2.4.1. The World Wide Web Consortium1.2.4.2. The Internet Engineering Task Force
1.3. HTML and XHTML: What They Are
1.4. HTML and XHTML: What They Aren't
1.4.1. Content Versus Appearance
1.5. Standards and Extensions
1.5.1. Nonstandard Extensions1.5.2. Extensions: Pro and Con1.5.3. Avoiding Extensions1.5.4. Extensions Through Modules
1.6. Tools for the Web Designer
1.6.1. Essentials1.6.1.1. Text processor or WYSIWYG editor?1.6.1.2. Browser software1.6.2. An Extended Toolkit
2. Quick Start
2.1. Writing Tools
2.2. A First HTML Document
2.3. Embedded Tags
2.3.1. Start and End Tags
2.4. HTML Skeleton
2.5. The Flesh on an HTML or XHTML Document
2.5.1. Comments2.5.2. Text2.5.3. Multimedia
2.6. Text
2.6.1. Appearance of Text2.6.1.1. Content-based text styles2.6.1.2. Physical styles2.6.1.3. Special text characters2.6.2. Text Structures2.6.2.1. Divisions, paragraphs, and line breaks2.6.2.2. Headings2.6.2.3. Horizontal rules2.6.2.4. Preformatted text
2.7. Hyperlinks
2.7.1. URLs2.7.2. Anchors2.7.3. Hyperlink Names and Navigation2.7.4. Anchors Beyond
2.8. Images Are Special
2.8.1. Inline Images2.8.2. Image Maps
2.9. Lists, Searchable Documents, and Forms
2.9.1. Unordered, Ordered, and Definition Lists2.9.2. Searchable Documents and Forms
2.10. Tables
2.11. Frames
2.12. Stylesheets and JavaScript
2.13. Forging Ahead
3. Anatomy of an HTML Document
3.1. Appearances Can Deceive
3.2. Structure of an HTML Document
3.3. Tags and Attributes
3.3.1. The Syntax of a Tag3.3.2. Sample Tags3.3.3. Starting and Ending Tags3.3.4. Proper and Improper Nesting3.3.5. Tags Without Ends3.3.6. Omitting Tags3.3.7. Ignored or Redundant Tags
3.4. Well-Formed Documents and XHTML
3.5. Document Content
3.5.1. Advice Versus Control3.5.2. Character Entities3.5.3. Comments
3.6. HTML/XHTML Document Elements
3.6.1. The <html> Tag3.6.1.1. The dir attribute3.6.1.2. The lang attribute3.6.1.3. The version attribute
3.7. The Document Header
3.7.1. The <head> Tag3.7.1.1. The dir and lang attributes3.7.1.2. The profile attribute3.7.2. The <title> Tag3.7.2.1. What's in a title?3.7.2.2. The dir and lang attributes3.7.3. Related Header Tags
3.8. The Document Body
3.8.1. The <body> Tag3.8.2. Frames
3.9. Editorial Markup
3.9.1. The <ins> and <del> Tags3.9.1.1. The cite attribute3.9.1.2. The datetime attribute3.9.1.3. The class, dir, event, id, lang, style, title, and events attributes3.9.2. Using Editorial Markup
3.10. The <bdo> Tag
4. Text Basics
4.1. Divisions and Paragraphs4.1.1. The <div> Tag4.1.1.1. The align attribute4.1.1.2. The nowrap attribute4.1.1.3. The dir and lang attributes4.1.1.4. The id attribute4.1.1.5. The title attribute4.1.1.6. The class and style attributes4.1.1.7. Event attributes4.1.2. The <p> Tag4.1.2.1. Paragraph rendering4.1.2.2. The align attribute4.1.2.3. The dir and lang attributes4.1.2.4. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.1.2.5. Event attributes4.1.2.6. Allowed paragraph content4.1.2.7. Allowed paragraph usage
4.2. Headings
4.2.1. Heading Tags4.2.1.1. The align attribute4.2.1.2. The dir and lang attributes4.2.1.3. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.2.1.4. Event attributes4.2.2. Appropriate Use of Headings4.2.3. Using Headings for Smaller Text4.2.4. Allowed Heading Content4.2.5. Allowed Heading Usage4.2.6. Adding Images to Headings
4.3. Changing Text Appearance and Meaning
4.3.1. Content-Based Styles4.3.2. Physical Styles
4.4. Content-Based Style Tags
4.4.1. The <abbr> Tag4.4.2. The <acronym> Tag4.4.3. The <cite> Tag4.4.4. The <code> Tag4.4.5. The <dfn> Tag4.4.6. The <em> Tag4.4.7. The <kbd> Tag4.4.8. The <samp> Tag4.4.9. The <strong> Tag4.4.10. The <var> Tag4.4.11. The class, style, id, and title Attributes4.4.12. The dir and lang Attributes4.4.13. Event Attributes4.4.14. Summary of Content-Based Tags4.4.15. Allowed Content4.4.16. Allowed Usage4.4.17. Combining Content-Based Styles
4.5. Physical Style Tags
4.5.1. The <b> Tag4.5.2. The <big> Tag4.5.3. The <blink> Tag (Obsolete Extension)4.5.4. The <i> Tag4.5.5. The <s> Tag (Deprecated)4.5.6. The <small> Tag4.5.7. The <strike> Tag (Deprecated)4.5.8. The <sub> Tag4.5.9. The <sup> Tag4.5.10. The <tt> Tag4.5.11. The <u> Tag (Deprecated)4.5.12. The dir and lang Attributes4.5.13. The class, style, id, and title Attributes4.5.14. Event Attributes4.5.15. Summary of Physical Style Tags4.5.16. Allowed Content4.5.17. Allowed Usage4.5.18. Combining Physical Styles
4.6. Precise Spacing and Layout
4.6.1. The <br> Tag4.6.1.1. The clear attribute4.6.1.2. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.6.2. The <nobr> Tag (Extension)4.6.3. The <wbr> Tag (Extension)4.6.4. Better Line-Breaking Rules4.6.5. The <pre> Tag4.6.5.1. Allowable content4.6.5.2. The width attribute4.6.5.3. The dir and lang attributes4.6.5.4. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.6.5.5. Event attributes4.6.6. The <center> Tag (Deprecated)4.6.6.1. The dir and lang attributes4.6.6.2. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.6.6.3. Event attributes4.6.7. The <listing> Tag (Obsolete)4.6.8. The <xmp> Tag (Obsolete)4.6.9. The <plaintext> Tag (Obsolete)
4.7. Block Quotes
4.7.1. The <blockquote> Tag4.7.1.1. The cite attribute4.7.1.2. The dir and lang attributes4.7.1.3. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.7.1.4. Event attributes4.7.2. The <q> Tag4.7.2.1. The cite attribute4.7.2.2. The dir and lang attributes4.7.2.3. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.7.2.4. Event attributes
4.8. Addresses
4.8.1. The <address> Tag4.8.1.1. The dir and lang attributes4.8.1.2. The class, id, style, and title attributes4.8.1.3. Event attributes
4.9. Special Character Encoding
4.9.1. Special Characters4.9.2. Inserting Special Characters
4.10. HTML's Obsolete Expanded Font Handling
4.10.1. The Extended Font Size Model4.10.2. The <basefont> Tag (Deprecated)4.10.3. The <font> Tag (Deprecated)4.10.3.1. The size attribute4.10.3.2. The color attribute4.10.3.3. The face attribute4.10.3.4. The dir and lang attributes4.10.3.5. The class, id, style, and title attributes
5. Rules, Images, and Multimedia
5.1. Horizontal Rules5.1.1. The <hr> Tag5.1.1.1. The size attribute5.1.1.2. The noshade attribute5.1.1.3. The width attribute5.1.1.4. The align attribute5.1.1.5. The color attribute5.1.1.6. Combining rule attributes5.1.1.7. The class, dir, event, id, lang, style, and title attributes5.1.2. Using Rules to Divide Your Document5.1.3. Using Rules in Headers and Footers
5.2. Inserting Images in Your Documents
5.2.1. Understanding Image Formats5.2.1.1. GIF5.2.1.2. Interlacing, transparency, and animation5.2.1.3. JPEG5.2.1.4. PNG5.2.2. When to Use Images5.2.3. When to Use Text5.2.4. Speeding Image Downloads5.2.5. JPEG, PNG, or GIF?5.2.6. The <img> Tag5.2.6.1. The src attribute5.2.6.2. The lowsrc attribute5.2.6.3. The alt and longdesc attributes5.2.6.4. The align attribute5.2.6.5. Wrapping text around images5.2.6.6. Centering an image5.2.6.7. Align and <center> are deprecated5.2.6.8. The border attribute5.2.6.9. Removing the image border5.2.6.10. The height and width attributes5.2.6.11. Resizing and flood-filling images5.2.6.12. Problems with height and width5.2.6.13. The hspace and vspace attributes5.2.6.14. The ismap and usemap attributes5.2.6.15. The class, dir, event, id, lang, style, and title attributes5.2.6.16. The name, onAbort, onError, onLoad, and other event attributes5.2.6.17. Combining <img> attributes5.2.7. Video Extensions5.2.7.1. The dynsrc attribute5.2.7.2. The controls attribute5.2.7.3. The loop attribute5.2.7.4. The start attribute5.2.7.5. Combining movie <img> attributes
5.3. Document Colors and Background Images
5.3.1. Additions and Extensions to the <body> Tag5.3.1.1. The bgcolor attribute5.3.1.2. The background attribute5.3.1.3. The bgproperties attribute5.3.1.4. The text attribute5.3.1.5. The link, vlink, and alink attributes5.3.1.6. The leftmargin attribute5.3.1.7. The topmargin attribute5.3.1.8. The style and class attributes5.3.1.9. Mixing and matching body attributes5.3.2. Extending a Warning5.3.2.1. Problems with background images5.3.2.2. Problems with background, text, and link colors5.3.2.3. And then again
5.4. Background Audio
5.4.1. The <bgsound> Tag5.4.1.1. The src attribute5.4.1.2. The loop attribute5.4.2. Alternative Audio Support
5.5. Animated Text
5.5.1. The <marquee> Tag5.5.1.1. The align attribute5.5.1.2. The behavior, direction, and loop attributes5.5.1.3. The bgcolor attribute5.5.1.4. The height and width attributes5.5.1.5. The hspace and vspace attributes5.5.1.6. The scrollamount and scrolldelay attributes
5.6. Other Multimedia Content
5.6.1. Embedded Versus Referenced Content5.6.2. Referencing Audio, Video, and Images5.6.3. Appropriate Linking Styles5.6.4. Embedding Other Document Types
6. Links and Webs
6.1. Hypertext Basics
6.2. Referencing Documents: The URL
6.2.1. Writing a URL6.2.1.1. Handling reserved and unsafe characters6.2.2. Absolute and Relative URLs6.2.2.1. Relative schemes and servers6.2.2.2. Relative document directories6.2.2.3. Using relative URLs6.2.3. The http URL6.2.3.1. The http server6.2.3.2. The http port6.2.3.3. The http path6.2.3.4. The http document fragment6.2.3.5. The http search parameter6.2.3.6. Sample http URLs6.2.4. The file URL6.2.4.1. The file server6.2.4.2. The file path6.2.4.3. Sample file URLs6.2.5. The mailto URL6.2.5.1. Defining mail header fields6.2.6. The ftp URL6.2.6.1. The ftp user and password6.2.6.2. The ftp server and port6.2.6.3. The ftp path and typecode6.2.6.4. Sample ftp URLs6.2.7. The javascript URL6.2.7.1. The javascript URL arguments6.2.8. The news URL6.2.8.1. Accessing entire newsgroups6.2.8.2. Accessing single messages6.2.9. The nntp URL6.2.9.1. The nntp server and port6.2.9.2. The nntp newsgroup and article6.2.9.3. Sample nntp URLs6.2.10. The telnet URL6.2.10.1. The Telnet user and password6.2.10.2. The Telnet server and port6.2.11. The gopher URL6.2.11.1. The gopher server and port6.2.11.2. The gopher path
6.3. Creating Hyperlinks
6.3.1. The <a> Tag6.3.1.1. Allowed content6.3.1.2. The href attribute6.3.1.3. The name and id attributes6.3.1.4. The event attributes6.3.1.5. The rel and rev attributes6.3.1.6. The style and class attributes6.3.1.7. The lang and dir attributes6.3.1.8. The target attribute6.3.1.9. The title attribute6.3.1.10. The charset, hreflang, and type attributes6.3.1.11. The coords and shape attributes6.3.1.12. The accesskey and tabindex attributes6.3.2. Linking to Other Documents6.3.3. Linking Within a Document
6.4. Creating Effective Links
6.4.1. Lists of Links6.4.2. Inline References6.4.3. Linking Dos and Don'ts6.4.4. Using Images and Links
6.5. Mouse-Sensitive Images
6.5.1. Server-Side Image Maps6.5.1.1. Server-side considerations6.5.2. Client-Side Image Maps6.5.3. The <map> Tag6.5.3.1. The name attribute6.5.3.2. The class, id, style, and title attributes6.5.3.3. The event attributes6.5.4. The <area> Tag6.5.4.1. The alt attribute6.5.4.2. The coords attribute6.5.4.3. The href attribute6.5.4.4. The nohref attribute6.5.4.5. The notab, taborder, and tabindex attributes6.5.4.6. The event attributes6.5.4.7. The shape attribute6.5.4.8. The target attribute6.5.4.9. The title attribute6.5.4.10. The class, dir, id, lang, and style attributes6.5.5. A Client-Side Image-Map Example6.5.6. Handling Other Browsers6.5.7. Effective Use of Mouse-Sensitive Images
6.6. Creating Searchable Documents
6.6.1. The <isindex> Tag (Deprecated)6.6.1.1. The prompt attribute6.6.1.2. The query URL6.6.1.3. The action attribute6.6.1.4. The class, dir, id, lang, style, and title attributes6.6.1.5. Server dependencies
6.7. Relationships
6.7.1. The <base> Header Element6.7.1.1. The href attribute6.7.1.2. The target attribute6.7.1.3. Using <base>6.7.2. The <link> Header Element6.7.2.1. The href attribute6.7.2.2. The rel and rev attributes6.7.2.3. The title attribute6.7.2.4. The type attribute6.7.2.5. How browsers might use <link>6.7.2.6. Other <link> attributes
6.8. Supporting Document Automation
6.8.1. The <meta> Header Element6.8.1.1. The name attribute6.8.1.2. The content attribute6.8.1.3. The http-equiv attribute6.8.1.4. The charset attribute6.8.1.5. The scheme attribute6.8.2. The <nextid> Header Element (Archaic)6.8.2.1. The n attribute
7. Formatted Lists
7.1. Unordered Lists7.1.1. The <ul> Tag7.1.1.1. The type attribute7.1.1.2. Compact unordered lists7.1.1.3. The style and class attributes7.1.1.4. The lang and dir attributes7.1.1.5. The id and title attributes7.1.1.6. The event attributes
7.2. Ordered Lists
7.2.1. The <ol> Tag7.2.1.1. The start attribute7.2.1.2. The type attribute7.2.1.3. Compact ordered lists7.2.1.4. The class, dir, id, lang, event, style, and title attributes
7.3. The <li> Tag
7.3.1. Changing the Style and Sequence of Individual List Items7.3.1.1. The type attribute7.3.1.2. The value attribute7.3.1.3. The style and class attributes7.3.1.4. The class, dir, id, lang, event, style, and title attributes
7.4. Nesting Lists
7.4.1. Nested Unordered Lists7.4.2. Nested Ordered Lists
7.5. Definition Lists
7.5.1. The <dl> Tag7.5.1.1. More compact definition lists7.5.1.2. The class, dir, id, lang, style, title, and event attributes7.5.2. The <dt> Tag7.5.2.1. Formatting text with <dt>7.5.2.2. The class, dir, id, lang, style, title, and event attributes7.5.3. The <dd> Tag7.5.3.1. The class, dir, id, lang, style, title, and event attributes
7.6. Appropriate List Usage
7.7. Directory Lists
7.7.1. The <dir> Tag (Deprecated)7.7.1.1. The <dir> attributes
7.8. Menu Lists
7.8.1. The <menu> Tag (Deprecated)
8. Cascading Style Sheets
8.1. The Elements of Styles8.1.1. Inline Styles: The style Attribute8.1.2. Document-Level Stylesheets8.1.2.1. The type attribute8.1.2.2. The media attribute8.1.2.3. The dir, lang, and title attributes8.1.3. Style-Free Browsers8.1.4. External Stylesheets8.1.4.1. Linked external stylesheets8.1.4.2. Imported external stylesheets8.1.5. Media-Specific Styles8.1.6. Linked Versus Imported Stylesheets8.1.7. Limitations of Current Browsers8.1.8. Style Comments8.1.9. Style Precedence
8.2. Style Syntax
8.2.1. The Basics8.2.2. Multiple Selectors8.2.3. Contextual Selectors8.2.4. Universal, Child, and Adjacent Selectors8.2.5. Attribute Selectors8.2.6. Pseudoelements
8.3. Style Classes
8.3.1. Regular Classes8.3.2. Generic Classes8.3.3. ID Classes8.3.4. Pseudoclasses8.3.4.1. Hyperlink pseudoclasses8.3.4.2. Interaction pseudoclasses8.3.4.3. Nesting and language pseudoclasses8.3.4.4. Browser support of pseudoclasses8.3.5. Mixing Classes8.3.6. Class Inheritance
8.4. Style Properties
8.4.1. Property Values8.4.1.1. Keyword property values8.4.1.2. Length property values8.4.1.3. Percentage property values8.4.1.4. URL property values8.4.1.5. Color property values8.4.1.6. Angle, time, and frequency property values8.4.2. Property Inheritance8.4.3. Font Properties8.4.3.1. The font-family property8.4.3.2. The font-size property8.4.3.3. The font-stretch property8.4.3.4. The font-size-adjust property8.4.3.5. The font-style property8.4.3.6. The font-variant property8.4.3.7. The font-weight property8.4.3.8. The font property8.4.4. Font Selection and Synthesis8.4.4.1. CSS2 font-matching steps8.4.4.2. Basic font descriptors8.4.4.3. The src descriptor8.4.4.4. Advanced font descriptors8.4.5. Color and Background Properties8.4.5.1. The background-color property8.4.5.2. The background-image property8.4.5.3. The background-attachment property8.4.5.4. The background-position property8.4.5.5. The background-repeat property8.4.5.6. The background property8.4.5.7. The color property8.4.6. Text Properties8.4.6.1. The letter-spacing property8.4.6.2. The line-height property8.4.6.3. The text-align property8.4.6.4. The text-decoration property8.4.6.5. The text-indent property8.4.6.6. The text-shadow property8.4.6.7. The text-transform property8.4.6.8. The vertical-align property8.4.6.9. The word-spacing property8.4.7. Box Properties8.4.7.1. The CSS2 formatting model8.4.7.2. The border properties8.4.7.3. The border-color property8.4.7.4. The border-width property8.4.7.5. The border-style property8.4.7.6. Borders in shorthand8.4.7.7. The clear property8.4.7.8. The clip property8.4.7.9. The float property8.4.7.10. The height property8.4.7.11. The margin properties8.4.7.12. The padding properties8.4.7.13. The overflow property8.4.7.14. The position properties8.4.7.15. The visibility property8.4.7.16. The width property8.4.7.17. The z-index property8.4.8. List Properties8.4.8.1. The list-style-image property8.4.8.2. The list-style-position property8.4.8.3. The list-style-type property8.4.8.4. The list-style property8.4.8.5. Using list properties effectively8.4.9. Table Properties8.4.9.1. The border-collapse, border-spacing, and empty-cells properties8.4.9.2. The caption-side property8.4.9.3. The speak-header property8.4.9.4. The table-layout property8.4.10. Classification Properties8.4.10.1. The display property8.4.10.2. The white-space property8.4.11. Generated Content Properties8.4.11.1. The :before and :after pseudoelements8.4.11.2. The content property8.4.11.3. Specifying quotation marks8.4.11.4. Creating counters8.4.11.5. Using counters in your documents8.4.11.6. Creating markers8.4.12. Audio Properties8.4.12.1. The volume property8.4.12.2. Speaking properties8.4.12.3. Voice characteristics8.4.12.4. Pause properties8.4.12.5. Cue properties8.4.12.6. Audio mixing8.4.12.7. Spatial positioning8.4.13. Paged Media8.4.13.1. Defining pages8.4.13.2. Left, right, and first pages8.4.13.3. Using named pages8.4.13.4. Controlling pagination8.4.13.5. Controlling widows and orphans
8.5. Tagless Styles: The <span> Tag
8.6. Applying Styles to Documents
8.6.1. To Style or Not to Style8.6.2. Which Type of Stylesheet, and When8.6.2.1. The pros and cons of external styles8.6.2.2. The pros and cons of document-level styles8.6.2.3. The pros and cons of inline styles
9. Forms
9.1. Form Fundamentals
9.2. The <form> Tag
9.2.1. The action Attribute9.2.2. The enctype Attribute9.2.2.1. The application/x-www-form-urlencoded encoding9.2.2.2. The multipart/form-data encoding9.2.2.3. The text/plain encoding9.2.3. The accept-charset Attribute9.2.4. The method Attribute9.2.4.1. POST or GET?9.2.4.2. Passing parameters explicitly9.2.5. The target Attribute9.2.6. The id, name, and title Attributes9.2.7. The class, style, lang, and dir Attributes9.2.8. The Event Attributes
9.3. A Simple Form Example
9.4. Using Email to Collect Form Data
9.4.1. Problems with Email Forms
9.5. The <input> Tag
9.5.1. Text Fields in Forms9.5.1.1. Conventional text fields9.5.1.2. Masked text controls9.5.1.3. File-selection controls9.5.2. Checkboxes9.5.3. Radio Buttons9.5.4. Action Buttons9.5.4.1. Submission buttons9.5.4.2. Reset buttons9.5.4.3. Custom image buttons9.5.4.4. Push buttons9.5.4.5. Multiple buttons in a single form9.5.5. Hidden Fields
9.6. The <button> Tag
9.6.1. The <button> Button9.6.2. The type Attribute
9.7. Multiline Text Areas
9.7.1. The <textarea> Tag9.7.1.1. The rows and cols attributes9.7.1.2. The wrap attribute
9.8. Multiple-Choice Elements
9.8.1. The <select> Tag9.8.1.1. The multiple attribute9.8.1.2. The size attribute9.8.2. The <option> Tag9.8.2.1. The value attribute9.8.2.2. The selected attribute9.8.2.3. The label attribute9.8.3. The <optgroup> Tag9.8.3.1. The label attribute
9.9. General Form-Control Attributes
9.9.1. The id and title Attributes9.9.2. The event Attributes9.9.3. The style, class, lang, and dir Attributes9.9.4. The tabindex, taborder ‼, and notab ‼ Attributes9.9.5. The accesskey Attribute9.9.6. The disabled and readonly Attributes
9.10. Labeling and Grouping Form Elements
9.10.1. The <label> Tag9.10.1.1. Implicit and explicit associations9.10.1.2. Other label attributes9.10.2. Forming a Group9.10.2.1. The <fieldset> tag9.10.2.2. The <legend> tag
9.11. Creating Effective Forms
9.11.1. Browser Constraints9.11.2. Handling Limited Displays9.11.3. User-Interface Considerations9.11.4. Creating Forms That Flow9.11.5. Good Form, Old Chap
9.12. Forms Programming
9.12.1. Returning Results9.12.2. Handling GET Forms9.12.2.1. Using named parameters with GET applications9.12.2.2. Using unnamed parameters with GET applications9.12.3. Handling POST Forms
10. Tables
10.1. The Standard Table Model10.1.1. Table Contents10.1.2. An Example Table10.1.3. Missing Features
10.2. Basic Table Tags
10.2.1. The <table> Tag10.2.1.1. The align attribute (deprecated)10.2.1.2. The bgcolor and background attributes10.2.1.3. The border attribute10.2.1.4. The frame and rules attributes10.2.1.5. The bordercolor, bordercolorlight, and bordercolordark attributes10.2.1.6. The cellspacing attribute10.2.1.7. The cellpadding attribute10.2.1.8. Combining the border, cellspacing, and cellpadding attributes10.2.1.9. The cols attribute10.2.1.10. The valign and nowrap attributes10.2.1.11. The width and height attributes10.2.1.12. The summary attribute10.2.1.13. The hspace and vspace attributes10.2.2. Common Table Attributes10.2.2.1. The id and title attributes10.2.2.2. The dir and lang attributes10.2.2.3. The class and style attributes10.2.2.4. The event attributes10.2.3. The <tr> Tag10.2.3.1. The align and valign attributes10.2.3.2. The char and charoff attributes10.2.3.3. The bgcolor and background attributes10.2.3.4. The bordercolor, bordercolorlight, and bordercolordark attributes10.2.3.5. The nowrap attribute10.2.4. The <th> and <td> Tags10.2.4.1. The align and valign attributes10.2.4.2. The width attribute10.2.4.3. The height attribute10.2.4.4. The colspan attribute10.2.4.5. The rowspan attribute10.2.4.6. Combining the colspan and rowspan attributes10.2.4.7. The nowrap attribute10.2.4.8. The bgcolor and background attributes10.2.4.9. The bordercolor, bordercolorlight, and bordercolordark attributes10.2.4.10. The char and charoff attributes10.2.4.11. The headers and scope attributes10.2.4.12. The abbr attribute10.2.4.13. The axis attribute10.2.5. The <caption> Tag10.2.5.1. The align and valign attributes10.2.5.2. The many other attributes
10.3. Advanced Table Tags
10.3.1. Defining Table Sections10.3.2. The <thead> Tag10.3.3. The <tfoot> Tag10.3.4. The <tbody> Tag10.3.5. Using Table Sections10.3.6. Defining Column Groups10.3.7. The <colgroup> Tag10.3.7.1. The span attribute10.3.7.2. When to span and col10.3.7.3. The other <colgroup> attributes10.3.8. The <col> tag10.3.8.1. The span attribute10.3.8.2. The other <col> attributes10.3.9. Using Column Groups
10.4. Beyond Ordinary Tables
11. Frames
11.1. An Overview of Frames
11.2. Frame Tags
11.2.1. What's in a Frame?
11.3. Frame Layout
11.3.1. The <frameset> Tag11.3.1.1. The rows and cols attributes11.3.1.2. The border, frameborder, framespacing, and bordercolor attributes11.3.1.3. Frames and JavaScript11.3.1.4. Other <frameset> attributes11.3.2. Nesting <frameset> Tags
11.4. Frame Contents
11.4.1. The <frame> Tag11.4.1.1. The src attribute11.4.1.2. The name and id attributes11.4.1.3. The noresize attribute11.4.1.4. The scrolling attribute11.4.1.5. The marginheight and marginwidth attributes11.4.1.6. The frameborder and bordercolor attributes11.4.1.7. The title and longdesc attributes
11.5. The <noframes> Tag
11.5.1. <noframes> Attributes
11.6. Inline Frames
11.6.1. The <iframe> Tag11.6.1.1. The align attribute11.6.1.2. The height and width attributes11.6.2. Using Inline Frames
11.7. Named Frame or Window Targets
11.7.1. The target Attribute for the <a> Tag11.7.2. Special Targets11.7.3. The <base> Default Target11.7.4. Traditional Link Behavior
11.8. XFrames
11.8.1. An XFrames Document11.8.2. XFrames URLs
12. Executable Content
12.1. Applets and Objects12.1.1. The Object Model12.1.1.1. The applet model12.1.1.2. The applet advantage12.1.1.3. Using applets correctly12.1.1.4. Writing applets
12.2. Embedded Content
12.2.1. The <object> Tag12.2.1.1. The classid attribute12.2.1.2. The codebase attribute12.2.1.3. The archive attribute12.2.1.4. The codetype attribute12.2.1.5. The data attribute12.2.1.6. The type attribute12.2.1.7. The align, class, border, height, hspace, style, vspace, and width attributes12.2.1.8. The declare attribute12.2.1.9. The id, name, and title attributes12.2.1.10. The shapes and usemap attributes12.2.1.11. The standby attribute12.2.1.12. The tabindex and notab attributes12.2.1.13. The dir and lang attributes12.2.1.14. Object event handling12.2.1.15. Supporting incompatible browsers12.2.2. The <param> Tag12.2.2.1. The id, name, and value attributes12.2.2.2. The type and valuetype attributes12.2.3. The <applet> Tag (Deprecated)12.2.3.1. Applet rendering12.2.3.2. The align attribute12.2.3.3. The alt attribute12.2.3.4. The archive attribute12.2.3.5. The code and codebase attributes12.2.3.6. The name attribute12.2.3.7. The height, hspace, vspace, and width attributes12.2.3.8. The mayscript attribute12.2.3.9. The title attribute12.2.3.10. The object attribute12.2.4. The <embed> Tag (Extension)12.2.4.1. The align, border, height, hspace, vspace, and width attributes12.2.4.2. The hidden attribute12.2.4.3. The name attribute12.2.4.4. The palette attribute12.2.4.5. The pluginspage attribute12.2.4.6. The src attribute12.2.4.7. The type attribute12.2.4.8. The units attribute12.2.5. The <noembed> Tag (Extension)
12.3. JavaScript
12.3.1. The <script> Tag12.3.1.1. The language and type attributes12.3.1.2. The src and charset attributes12.3.1.3. The defer attribute12.3.2. The <noscript> Tag12.3.3. JavaScript Event Handlers12.3.3.1. Standard event handler attributes12.3.3.2. The mouse-related events12.3.3.3. The keyboard events12.3.3.4. Document events12.3.4. javascript URLs12.3.5. JavaScript Entities12.3.6. The <server> Tag
12.4. JavaScript Stylesheets (Antiquated)
12.4.1. JavaScript Stylesheet Syntax12.4.1.1. External, document-level, and inline JSS12.4.1.2. JSS values12.4.1.3. Defining styles for tags12.4.1.4. Defining style classes12.4.1.5. Using contextual styles12.4.2. JavaScript Stylesheet Properties
13. Dynamic Documents
13.1. An Overview of Dynamic Documents13.1.1. Another Word of Caution
13.2. Client-Pull Documents
13.2.1. Uniquely Refreshing13.2.2. The Refresh Header Contents13.2.2.1. Refreshing the same document13.2.2.2. Refreshing with a different document13.2.2.3. Cycling between documents13.2.3. Pulling Non-HTML Content13.2.4. Combining Refresh with Other HTTP Header Fields13.2.4.1. A random URL generator13.2.5. Performance Considerations
13.3. Server-Push Documents
13.3.1. The Multipart/Mixed Media Type13.3.2. The Multipart/X-Mixed-Replace Media Type13.3.3. Exploiting Multipart Documents13.3.3.1. Efficiency considerations13.3.4. Creating a Server-Push Document13.3.4.1. Server-push example application for NCSA and Apache httpd
14. Mobile Devices
14.1. The Mobile Web14.1.1. Devices14.1.1.1. Mobile phones14.1.1.2. PDAs14.1.1.3. Convergence devices14.1.2. Cellular Access14.1.2.1. Low speed14.1.2.2. High-speed cellular access14.1.2.3. WiFi
14.2. Device Considerations
14.2.1. Browser Constraints14.2.2. Input Constraints14.2.3. Network Constraints14.2.4. Display Constraints
14.3. XHTML Basic
14.3.1. Supported Tags14.3.1.1. Basic content14.3.1.2. Images, objects, and scripting14.3.1.3. Lists14.3.1.4. Forms14.3.1.5. Tables14.3.1.6. Document header14.3.2. Design Versus Intent
14.4. Effective Mobile Web Design
14.4.1. Understand Your User14.4.2. Links and Navigation14.4.3. Forms14.4.4. Layout and Presentation14.4.4.1. Stylesheets14.4.4.2. Text fonts14.4.4.3. Margins and spacing14.4.5. Images14.4.6. General Advice
15. XML
15.1. Languages and Metalanguages15.1.1. Creation Versus Display15.1.2. A Little History
15.2. Documents and DTDs
15.3. Understanding XML DTDs
15.3.1. Comments15.3.2. Entities15.3.3. Entity Declarations15.3.4. Elements
15.4. Element Grammar
15.4.1. Sequence, Choice, Grouping, and Repetition15.4.2. Multiple Grammar Rules15.4.3. XML Element Grammar15.4.4. Mixed Element Content15.4.5. Empty Elements
15.5. Element Attributes
15.5.1. Attribute Values15.5.2. Required and Default Attributes
15.6. Conditional Sections
15.7. Building an XML DTD
15.7.1. An XML Address DTD15.7.2. Using the Address DTD
15.8. Using XML
15.8.1. Creating Your Own Markup Language15.8.2. Document Exchange15.8.3. Connecting Systems15.8.4. Standardizing HTML
16. XHTML
16.1. Why XHTML?16.1.1. XHTML Document Type Definitions
16.2. Creating XHTML Documents
16.2.1. Declaring Document Types16.2.2. Understanding Namespaces16.2.3. A Minimal XHTML Document
16.3. HTML Versus XHTML
16.3.1. Correctly Nested Elements16.3.2. End Tags16.3.3. Handling Empty Elements16.3.4. Case Sensitivity16.3.5. Quoted Attribute Values16.3.6. Explicit Attribute Values16.3.7. Handling Special Characters16.3.8. The id and name Attributes
16.4. XHTML 1.1
16.4.1. Differences in XHTML 1.1
16.5. Should You Use XHTML?
16.5.1. The Dusty Deck Problem16.5.2. Automatic Conversion16.5.3. Lenient Browsers and Lazy Authors16.5.4. Time, Money, and Standards16.5.5. Man Versus Machine16.5.6. What to Do?
17. Tips, Tricks, and Hacks
17.1. Top of the Tips17.1.1. Design for Your Audience17.1.2. Consistent Documents
17.2. Cleaning Up After Your HTML Editor
17.2.1. Where Did My Document Go?17.2.2. When and Why to Edit the Editor17.2.3. Use the Best
17.3. Tricks with Tables
17.3.1. Multicolumn Pages17.3.1.1. Basic multicolumn layout17.3.1.2. Straddle heads17.3.2. Side Heads17.3.3. Better Forms Layout17.3.3.1. Basic forms layout17.3.3.2. Building forms with nested tables
17.4. Tricks with Windows and Frames
17.4.1. Targeting Windows17.4.2. Overriding Others' Targets17.4.3. Multiple Frames in One Link
A. HTML Grammar
A.1. Grammatical ConventionsA.1.1. Typographic and Naming ConventionsA.1.2. Punctuation ConventionsA.1.2.1. AlternationA.1.2.2. RepetitionA.1.2.3. Optional elementsA.1.3. More DetailsA.1.4. Predefined Nonterminals
A.2. The Grammar
B. HTML/XHTML Tag Quick Reference
B.1. Core Attributes
B.2. HTML Quick Reference
C. Cascading Style Sheet Properties Quick Reference
D. The HTML 4.01 DTD
E. The XHTML 1.0 DTD
F. Character Entities
G. Color Names and Values
G.1. Color Values
G.2. Color Names
G.3. The Standard Color Map
H. Netscape Layout Extensions
H.1. Creating WhitespaceH.1.1. The <spacer> Tag (Antiquated)H.1.1.1. Creating horizontal spaceH.1.1.2. Creating vertical spaceH.1.1.3. Creating blocks of spaceH.1.2. Mimicking the <spacer> Tag
H.2. Multicolumn Layout
H.2.1. The <multicol> Tag (Antiquated)H.2.1.1. The cols attributeH.2.1.2. The gutter attributeH.2.1.3. The width attributeH.2.1.4. The style and class attributesH.2.2. Multiple Columns and Other BrowsersH.2.3. Effective Multicolumn Layouts
H.3. Layers
H.3.1. The <layer> Tag (Antiquated)H.3.1.1. The name attributeH.3.1.2. The left and top attributesH.3.1.3. The above, below, and z-index attributesH.3.1.4. The background and bgcolor attributesH.3.1.5. The visibility attributeH.3.1.6. The width attributeH.3.1.7. The src attributeH.3.1.8. The clip attributeH.3.1.9. The style and class attributesH.3.2. The <ilayer> Tag (Antiquated)H.3.2.1. The top and left attributesH.3.2.2. Combining <layer> and <ilayer>
Index
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Content preview from HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition

Tricks with Tables

By design, tables let authors create appealing, accessible tables of information. But the table tags also can be exploited to create innovative, attractive page designs that are otherwise unattainable in standard HTML and XHTML.

Multicolumn Pages

One very common and popular page-layout element missing from HTML and XHTML is multiple columns of text. Here's a tip on how to use tables to achieve that effect.^[*]

Basic multicolumn layout

The basic two-column layout using <table> has a single table row with three data cells: one each for the columns of text and an intervening empty cell to more attractively separate the two columns. We've also added a large cellspacing attribute value to create additional intervening space between the columns.

The following example HTML table is an excellent template for a simple two-column text layout:

<table border=0 cellspacing=7>
  <tr>
    <td>Copy for column 1...
    <td><br>
    <td>Copy for column 2...
 </table>

See Figure 17-1 for the results.

Figure 17-1. A simple two-column layout

The one thing the browsers won't do is automatically balance the text in the columns, resulting in adjacent columns of approximately the same length. You'll have to experiment with your document, manually shifting text from one column to another until you achieve a nicely balanced page.

Keep in mind, though, that users may resize their display windows, and the columns' ...

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