[thelist] defined table width and accessibility

Kasimir K evolt at kasimir-k.fi
Wed Jun 1 07:28:36 CDT 2005


Bruce Gilbert scribeva in 2005-06-01 00:31:
> I recently learned that a defined table width eg: width="550" is not a
> good idea due to not being compatible with devices other than
> computers. 

In general it is a good idea not to use (X)HTML elements for 
presentational purposes, but rather use CSS for that.

Having that said, if you stick to the standards then the User Agents' 
claiming to be compatible with those standards should be able to present 
  your documents - especially if you don't use any deprecated features.

And TABLE element's WIDTH attribute happens not to be deprecated [0]

> I know tables are frowned upon,
> but there are cases when they are necessary. 

They are frowned upon when used for layout purposes - if you on the 
other hand have tabular data to present it would be foolish not to use a 
table...

.k



[0] 
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/struct/tables.html#adef-width-TABLE
http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xhtml-modularization-20010410/abstract_modules.html#sec_5.6.


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