Web Standards Guide
The University of Adelaide Australia
Web Standards Home
Conditions of Use
Content style guide
Plan your site
Maintain your site
Using Server Side Includes
Using style sheets
Using headings
Using tables
Set up email address for enquiries
Upload your pages
Extend your site
Visual Identity [External link]
Contact us

Online Media Unit
Level 7, Old Classics Wing
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
Email


Telephone:
+61 8 8303 3280
Facsimile:
+61 8 8303 4829

Using tables

HTML tables are designed to present tabular information in a webpage and can also be used to enhance the appearance and readability of content on a page. Tables can be created within tables to provide many possible options. For example, the standard University templates use tables to define the layout of pages.

When to use tables

If you have a quantity of information which naturally divides into rows and columns, then a table is likely to be the best way to display it, both in terms of appearance and readability.

Formats for tables

It is often useful to use background colour to aid in the readability of tables, for example by shading the heading row, or the first column, of information. Background colours should be chosen to highlight information without making the text unreadable. Web Services have created several options for table colour schemes.

Option 1

Table heading
sub-heading 1 sub-heading 2
table content table content

The source code you would need in your webpage to create this table looks like:

<table width="75%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="3">
<tr> 
<td class="ta1" colspan="2">Table heading</td>
</tr>
<tr> 
<td class="ta2">sub-heading 1</td>
<td class="ta2"> sub-heading 2</td>
</tr>
<tr> 
<td class="ta3">table content</td>
<td class="ta4">table content</td>
</tr>
</table>

Option 2

Table heading
table content table content

The source code you would need in your webpage to create this table looks like:

<table width="75%" border="1" cellspacing="0"  cellpadding="5">
<tr> 
<td class="tb1" colspan="2" height="24">Table  heading</td>
</tr>
<tr> 
<td class="tb2">table content</td>
<td class="tb2"> table content</td>
</tr>
</table>

For tables which are to appear with borders around the information, the recommended settings are

  • border = 1
  • cell spacing = 0 and
  • cell padding = 5

Further options and updates will become available as required. Contact Online Media Unit for more information.