rules (HTML attribute)
| Depr. | Version |
|---|---|
| No | HTML 2 |
| IE5.5+ | FF1+ | SA3+ | OP9.2+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buggy | Full | Buggy | Full |
Syntax
Description
The
rules attribute allows you to set borders (also
called rules, surprise, surprise!) inside the table at
the boundaries between cells. For example, you can set the
rules to "rows", as you can see
in Figure 1. This practice creates the
dividing lines, but doesn’t affect the table’s border (for that, you’d use
the frame attribute—the rules
attribute’s partner in crime—or the border
attribute).
rules attributes are
set to "rows", "cols", and
"all"
Example
The rules
attribute for this table is set to
"rows":
<table rules="rows">
<tr>
<th>Account Type</th>
<th>Interest Rate</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Smart</td>
<td>From 2%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Young Saver</td>
<td>From 1.6%</td>
</tr>
</table>
Value
The recognized attribute values are as shown in the syntax section.
Compatibility
| Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Opera | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 9.2 | 9.5 |
| Buggy | Buggy | Buggy | Full | Full | Full | None | None | Buggy | Full | Full |
Most browsers tested
do something with this attribute's values (with the exception of
Safari 1 and 2, which ignore them completely), but there were still some
problems. Internet Explorer insists on adding a border around the table,
not just to the boundaries between table cells; Safari 3 doesn’t apply a
border around the table, but adds a border on the outside edges of the
affected cells, unlike Firefox, which adds the correct border. The
differences are demonstrated in Figure 2,
which shows the rendering of the table markup in the example HTML above
(rules="rows") compared in the three browsers
mentioned.
rules attribute in action, as viewed
in Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer
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