How do I get a square around a table?

liunx · Jan 9, 2008

Can someone tell me how I can get a square around a table? 
I just can't figure it out! 
 
I saw this simple website: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.physiotherapy-specialists.co.uk/">http://www.physiotherapy-specialists.co.uk/</a> 
 
I had a look at the code... and I'm still lost. 
They seem to use a tiny gif... 
But... I can't figure out how they get the lines? 
 
Any help would be aprpeciated. 
 
Thanks. 
 
 
JamEasily done with CSS: 
 
<table style="border: 1px solid black;"> 
<tr> 
<td>Row One, Cell One</td> 
<td>Row One, Cell Two</td> 
</tr> 
<tr> 
<td>Row Two, Cell One</td> 
<td>Row Two, Cell Two</td> 
</tr> 
</table>They used a nested table - the outer table has a black (#000000) background, and it has a padding of 1 px. The tiny gif you are thinking of (media/images/pix.gif) is actually a 1x1 px spacer (not relevant to what you are looking for) 
 
Here is a stripped code for tables, so you can see better how they achieved it. 
<table width="750" bgcolor="#000000" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"> 
<tr> 
<td> 
<table width="748" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> 
<tr> 
<td></td> 
</tr> 
</table> 
 
--------------------------- 
CSS is a much better choice, though, just as pyro suggested.Thanks for the replies. 
I think I'll use CSS. 
 
But... 
I was sure u had made a mistake in your coding... 
But it seems not. 
 
What is a nested table? 
(Em.. I've never come accross it.)

A nested table is a table inside of a table. Generally a bad idea. 
 
<table> 
<tr> 
<td> 
<table> 
<tr> 
<td>blah</td> 
</tr> 
</table> 
</td> 
</tr> 
</table>I still don't get it. 
 
Look at Daria's code. 
Is it right? 
Surely there has to be an errorin there? 
 
Using nested tables, I can't get a line width to be as fine as what I get from Daria's example. 
 
I'm confused.

And why are nested tables frowned on? 
I use them all the time. 
(Though I didn't know I was using nested tables.)

Because you should be using CSS to format your pages... Also, yes, the code that Daria posted [I assume from the site you posted] will work (once you close the open tags) but it is the "suicide" way of doing it...

it'll work fine, but all those blind people on palm pilots won't be able to see it (oh and it's just a bad idea to have tables nested 4 deep)Reasons why nested tables are bad: 
1. Usually not search engine friendly 
2. Totally ignore other browsers (palm pilot, screen readers etc) 
3. Bloated content (CSS-based layout can save 35 to 50% on bandwidth) 
4. Difficult to maintain due to the complexity posed by nesting the tables. 
 
In this example, why would you nest tables when 
table {border: 1px solid #000} 
accomplishes the same task much more easily?Yes, nested tables within XHTML Basic 1.0 are illegal by default for a good reason. Furthermore they don't work too well when linearized.

How do I get a square around a table?

liunx

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