HTML The Definitive Guide (115 page)

11.2.1.12 The width and height attributes
Browsers will automatically make a table only as wide as needed to correctly display all of the cell contents. If necessary, you can make a table wider with the width attribute.

The value of the width attribute is either an integer number of pixels or a relative percentage of the screen width, including values greater than 100 percent. For example:

tells the extended browser to make the table 400 pixels wide, including any borders and cell spacing that extend into the outer edge of the table. If the table is wider than 400 pixels, the browser ignores the attribute.

Alternatively:

tells the browser to make the table half as wide as the display window. Again, this width includes any borders or cell spacing that extend into the outer edge of the table, and has no effect if the table normally is more than half the user's current screen width.

Use relative widths for tables you want to resize automatically to the user's window; for instance, tables you always want to extend across the entire window (

For Netscape and Internet Explorer, you can use the nonstandard height attribute to suggest a recommended height for the table. The browser will make the table no shorter than this height, but may make the table taller if needed to contain the table's contents. This attribute is useful when trying to stretch tables to fit in a frame or some specific area of a document, but is of little use otherwise, particularly since it is not a standard attribute.

11.2.1.13 The summary attribute

The summary attribute is introduced to HTML in the 4.0 standard. Its value is a quote-enclosed string which describes the purpose and summarizes the contents of the table. Its intended use, according to the standard, is to provide extended access to nonvisual browsers, particularly for users with disabilities.

11.2.2 Common Table Attributes

The HTML 4.0 standard, combined with standard Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), provides a number of attributes common not only to the

11.2.2.1 The id and title attributes

Use the id attribute with a quote-enclosed string value to uniquely label a table tag for later reference by a hyperlink or an applet. Use the title attribute with a string value to optionally entitle the table or any of its segments for general reference. A title's value need not be unique, and it may or may not be used by the browser. Internet Explorer, for example, displays the title attribute's text value
whenever the user passes the mouse pointer over the element's contents. [The id attribute, 4.1.1.4]

[The title attribute, 4.1.1.5]

11.2.2.2 The dir and lang attributes

Although its contents are predominantly in English, the Web is worldwide. The HTML 4.0 standard takes pains to extend the language to all cultures. We support that effort wholeheartedly. The dir and lang attributes are just small parts of that process.

The dir attribute advises the browser as to the direction the text of the contents should flow, from left to right (dir=ltr), as for common Western languages like English and German, or right to left (dir=rtl), as for common Eastern language like Hebrew and Chinese.

The lang attribute lets you explicitly indicate the language used in the table or even individual cell contents. Its value should be an ISO standard two-letter primary code followed by an optional dialect subcode with a hyphen (-) between the two.

Neither dir nor lang are yet supported by the popular browsers.
[The dir attribute, 3.5.1.1] [The

lang attribute, 3.5.1.2]

11.2.2.3 The class and style attributes
The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standard is the sanctioned way to define display attributes for HTML elements, and it is rapidly becoming the only way, too. Use the style attribute to define display characteristics for the table and its elements that take immediate effect and override the display styles that may be currently in effect for the document as a whole. Use the class attribute to reference a style sheet that defines the unique display characteristics for the table and its elements.

We discuss the class and style attributes and the CSS standard in detail in the Chapter 9,
Cascading Style Sheets. [Inline Styles: The style Attribute, 9.1.1]
[Style Classes, 9.2.4]

11.2.2.4 The event attributes

The popular browsers have internal mechanisms that detect the various user-initiated mouse and keyboard events that can happen in and around your tables and their elements. For instance, the user might click the mouse pointer in one of the table cells, or highlight the caption and then press the Return or Enter key.

With the various event attributes, you can react to these events, such as onClick and onKeyDown, by having the browser execute one or more JavaScript commands or applets that you reference as the value to the respective event attribute. See Chapter 13, Executable Content, for details.

11.2.3 The

Make a new row in a table with the

Function:

Define a row within a table

Attributes:

ALIGN ONDBLCLICK

BGCOLOR ONKEYDOWN

BORDERCOLOR

ONKEYPRESS

BORDERCOLORDARK

ONKEYUP

BORDERCOLORLIGHT

ONMOUSEDOWN

CHAR ONMOUSEMOVE

CHAROFF ONMOUSEOUT

CLASS ONMOUSEOVER

DIR ONMOUSEUP

ID STYLE

LANG TITLE

NOWRAP

VALIGN

ONCLICK

End tag:

Contains:

tr_content

Used in:

table_content

Every row in a table has the same number of cells as the longest row; the browser automatically creates empty cells to pad rows with fewer defined cells.

11.2.3.1 The align and valign attributes

The align attribute for

An align attribute value of left, right, center, justify, or char causes the browser to align the contents of each cell in the row against the left or right edge, in the center of the cell, spread across the cell, or to a specified character in the cell, respectively.

Similarly, change the default vertical alignment for the contents of data cells contained within a table row with the valign attribute. Normally, the browsers render cell contents centered vertically. By including the valign attribute in the

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