About tables

Tables are a powerful tool for presenting tabular data and for laying out text and graphics on an HTML page. A table consists of one or more rows; each row consists of one or more cells. Although columns aren’t usually explicitly specified in HTML code, Dreamweaver enables you to manipulate columns as well as rows and cells.

Dreamweaver displays the table width and the column width for each table column when the table is selected or when the insertion point is in the table. Next to the widths are arrows for the table header menu and the column header menus. Use the menus for quick access to some common table-related commands. You can enable or disable the widths and menus as necessary (see Displaying table and column widths and menus).

If you do not see a width for the table or for a column, then that table or column does not have a specified width in the HTML code. If two numbers appear, then the visual width as it appears in Design view doesn’t match the width specified in the HTML code. This can happen when you resize a table by dragging its lower-right corner or when you add content to a cell that’s larger than its set width.

For example, if you set a column’s width to 200 pixels, then add content that stretches the width to 250 pixels, two numbers appear for that column: 200 (the width specified in the code) and (250) in parentheses (the visual width of the column as it’s rendered on your screen).

To reconcile the column widths, see Making column widths in code consistent with visual widths.

This section covers the following conceptual topics:

• Table formatting precedence in HTML
• About splitting and merging table cells

Related topics

• Inserting a table and adding content