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by Ian Lloyd

width (HTML attribute)

Spec
Depr. Version
No HTML 4
Browser support full matrix
IE5.5+ FF1+ Saf1.3+ Op9.2+
Full Full Full Full
width=" { number | percentage } "

Example

Here, the width attribute for two column groups is split on a percentage basis—the first column group receives 60% of the available width, while the second receives 40% of the available width:

<table border="1">
  <colgroup width="60%" span="2"/></colgroup>
  <colgroup width="40%" span="2"/></colgroup>
  <tr>
    <th colspan="4" scope="col">Work Contact Points</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th>Name</th>
    <th>Email</th>
    <th>Phone</th>
    <th>Floor/Block</th>
  </tr>
  ⋮
</table>

Description

Unless a width is set, a td (and the th) will take up only the width as it requires (obviously this will depend on the amount of content in each table cell). You can use the width attribute in the context of the colgroup element to fix the width to a value of your choosing, regardless of the content of the table cell.

Value

This attribute takes a number representing the width of the column group in pixels, or a percentage.

Compatibility

IE5.5Full
6.0Full
7.0Full
Firefox1.0Full
1.5Full
2.0Full
Safari1.3Full
2.0Full
3.0Full
Opera9.2Full
9.5Full

It causes no compatibility issues, and has excellent support across all tested browsers.

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