Learning Web Design, 5th Edition

8. Table Markup

8

Table Markup

In this Chapter

How tables are used

Basic table structure

Spanning rows and columns

Row and column groups

Making tables accessible

Before we launch into the markup for tables, let’s check in with our progress so far. We’ve covered a lot of territory: how to establish the basic structure of an HTML document, how to mark up text to give it meaning and structure, how to make links, and how to embed simple images on the page.

This chapter and the next two chapters, Chapter 9, Forms, and Chapter 10, Embedded Media, describe the markup for specialized content that you might not have a need for right away. If you’re getting antsy to make your pages look good, skip right to Part III and start playing with Cascading Style Sheets. The tables, forms, and media chapters will be here when you’re ready for them.

Are you still with me? Great. Let’s talk tables. We’ll start out by reviewing how tables should be used, then learn the elements used to create them. Remember, this is an HTML chapter, so we’re going to focus on the markup that structures the content into tables, and we won’t be concerned with how the tables look (that will be tackled in various CSS chapters in Part III).

How to Use Tables

HTML tables were created for instances when you need to add tabular material (data arranged into rows and columns) to a web page. Tables may be used to organize schedules, product comparisons, statistics, or other types of information, as shown in Figure 8-1 ...