Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Affecting Table Appearance

The HTML table standard provides many tags for controlling the display of tables. Bear in mind that, as with most formatting tags, browsers have their own way of interpreting your instructions, so results may vary among browser releases and platforms. This is particularly true of tables since the standard is still being nailed down. As always, it is best to test in a variety of viewing environments.

It is important to note that some of the attributes that affect appearance (align, valign, and bgcolor) have been deprecated by the HTML 4.01 specification in favor of achieving the same effects with style sheets. Expect the major browsers, however, to continue supporting the following methods until style sheets are universally supported.

Borders, Frames, and Rules

The traditional method for adding a border around a table is the border attribute, which affects the display of the borders around and within the table. For more finely tuned control, the HTML separates control over the outer edge of the table (its frame) from the lines between cells within the table (rules). Let’s look at all three attributes.

The border attribute

By default, tables display with no borders. When the border attribute alone (with no value specified) is added to the <table> tag, a 1-pixel border is added around and between the cells, as shown in Figure 13-5.

Figure 13-5. Table with ...