Tables

Introduction

Tables are one of the most advanced HTML formatting capabilities. Tables consist of several elements:

• One or more cells arranged into rows and columns
• Optional row and column headings
• An optional border
• An optional caption

Web browsers dynamically display tables based on the current window size, font selection, and other parameters. While it is possible to create exquisitely customized HTML tables, the communication value of a table tends to decrease in proportion to its complexity. MTX provides a simplified and flexible format for defining tables.

MTX Table Format

Use a leading vertical bar (|) to tag lines that will become part of a table. Each new line becomes a row in the table. Use additional vertical bars (|) to delimit columns within each row of a table. Here is an example:

  |A Simple Table
  |      |*col 1|*col 2|*col 3
  |*row 1|one   |two   |three
  |*row 2|four  |five  |six
  |*row 3|seven |eight |nine

The first line of the table contains the caption and other formatting information. Leave this line empty or use the "none" switch to suppress the caption. Place a leading star (*) character in a cell to create a row or column heading. Empty cells will be blank unless they contain a single star (*) character. Place a leading caret (^) to force the text in a cell to be top aligned (the default is vertically centered). Use spaces to pad lines for better source file readability. Use the line break tag {BR} to force a line break within a cell.

It is possible to have a cell that spans more than one column. Use the back slash (\) character followed by the number of columns to span:

  |col 1 |span\2 |col 4

By default, tables will expand to fill 95% of the width of the current window. This can be overridden by using the "nowide" switch after the caption. The table border can be suppressd by using the "noborder" switch. Blank cells can be suppressed for the entire table by using the "noblanks" switch. These switches can be combined by adding additional vertical bars (|). Here are some examples:

  |A Skinny Table|nowide
  |An Invisible Table|noborder
  |A Skinny, Invisible Table|nowide|noborder
  |A Table with No Blanks|noblanks

Tables are not universally available. Current versions of Netscape and NCSA Mosaic support tables. Web browsers from America Online and certain other online services do not. [3.2]

Examples

A More Complex Table

	col 1	col 2	col 3
row 1	one two three
row 2	This is a long line of text that must all fit in the cell.	five	six
row 3		hypertext link	nine
row 4	ten and eleven		twelve