rowspan/colspan in CSS? Does it exist?

Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a table cell? I
use index dot css as a reference, and I do not see anything there in the
tables section that would work for this:
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/cs...ndex/table.htm

Joshua Beall

In article <inZcc.10174$>,
"Joshua Beall" <> wrote:

> Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a table cell?

No. It is a structural issue and that is what HTML is for, not CSS. You
don't happen to use tables to layout your site, do you?

--
Kris
<> (nl)
<http://www.cinnamon.nl/>

Joshua Beall wrote:

> Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a table cell?

No, CSS is a presentation language. colspan and rowspan describe a
structural relationship (i.e. this cell relates to this row/col and the
next X rows/cols).


--
David Dorward <http://blog.dorward.me.uk/> <http://dorward.me.uk/>

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 20:19:26 GMT, "Joshua Beall"
<> declared in alt.html:

> Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a table cell?

No. As the others have said, it is not a presentation issue (CSS), it is
a structural issue (HTML).

http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?Tableless_layouts

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

"Joshua Beall" <> wrote in message
news:inZcc.10174$...
> Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a table cell? I
> use index dot css as a reference, and I do not see anything there in the
> tables section that would work for this:
> http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/cs...ndex/table.htm
>

row/col span is not necessary in css.
A division is the equivelant of one table cell.
So you use your definitions to set it up as you like it.

Kris
<news:kristiaan->:

> In article <inZcc.10174$>,
> "Joshua Beall" <>
> wrote:
>
>> Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a
>> table cell?
>
> No. It is a structural issue and that is what HTML is for, not
> CSS. You don't happen to use tables to layout your site, do
> you?

Is layout structure or presentation?

--
Rob - http://rock13.com/
Web Stuff: http://rock13.com/webhelp/

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 00:57:22 -0500, Rob McAninch <>
declared in alt.html:

> Is layout structure or presentation?

Presentation.

E.g:
Structure: This is a paragraph (or list, table, etc.)
Presentation: This should be this colour (font, be on the right, etc.)

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

In article <Xns94C5140DC9FA1rock13com@216.196.97.142>,
Rob McAninch <> wrote:

> >> Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a
> >> table cell?
> >
> > No. It is a structural issue and that is what HTML is for, not
> > CSS. You don't happen to use tables to layout your site, do
> > you?
>
> Is layout structure or presentation?

Visual presentation. It can look 'structurised' though. Compared to a
building, it has an internal structure that often is not visible to the
eye; on the outside you see brick, glass, balconies, etcetera. There are
also architectural styles that make the structure of a building visible
on the outside, like Centre Pompidou in Paris. Nevertheless, the
structure not there for visuals. It holds the building together.
Presentation is 'how it looks on the outside'.

--
Kris
<> (nl)
<http://www.cinnamon.nl/>

Rob McAninch wrote:
> Kris
> <news:kristiaan->:
>> In article <inZcc.10174$>,
>> "Joshua Beall" <>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Does CSS allow you to specify the row or column span for a
>>> table cell?
>>
>> No. It is a structural issue and that is what HTML is for, not
>> CSS. You don't happen to use tables to layout your site, do
>> you?
>
> Is layout structure or presentation?

I think it is ambiguous. See, for example, what the HTML recommendation says
about "Structure and presentation" for tables.
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/appendi...l#notes-tables

I think, over the years, there has been a change in mind-set on this. A decade
ago, discussions about stylesheets were mainly about the the detailed
rendering of the material, rather than its top-level presentation on a page or
screen. There were exceptions, such as a proposal for "columns" as a
stylesheet layout feature. But people talking about what stylesheets were for
tended to give examples about fonts & colours, etc. So you laid it out
somehow, then styled it with a stylesheet. (And "columns" haven't yet been
recommended in CSS, although there are proposals. In other words, it is
recognised that a specific layout-need has not yet been satisfied by CSS).

For example, here was a discussion from 1993:
http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/archives...sages/443.html

Category | Style Name:

character rendering > font
object justification > justify
page layout > column
break behavior > break
special marks > mark
vertical object layout > vert
horizontal object layout > indent
links contained in objects > link

Gradually, some people are placing "layout" strongly in the "presentation"
category. But I suspect they are doing so to an extent that the pioneers would
not recognise.

--
Barry Pearson
http://www.Barry.Pearson.name/photography/
http://www.BirdsAndAnimals.info/
http://www.ChildSupportAnalysis.co.uk/

Richard <Anonymous@127.001> wrote:
> row/col span is not necessary in css.

There is in a way. As it stands, there is no property for spanning
elements being displayed as cells by using display:table-cell

At the moment CSS tables are only useful for creating basic grids.

Opera 4 and above (not tested in 7 yet) respects the colspan and
rowspan attributes on the elements you display as table cells but
this is not part of any spec and it doesn't work in Mozilla, the
only other browser that does CSS tables:

<div style="display:table; margin:2em">
<h3 style="display:table-caption">What's Mozilla doing?</h3>
<div style="display:table-row">
<p style="display:table-cell" colspan="2">AB</p>
<p style="display:table-cell">C</p>
</div>
<div style="display:table-row">
<p style="display:table-cell">D</p>
<p style="display:table-cell">E</p>
<p style="display:table-cell">F</p>
</div>
</div>


However, with regard to the original post, if you're using real table
elements then you should be spanning with the relevant attributes, not
CSS.