Re: Empty paragraphs

Klaus Johannes Rusch wrote:
> 
> In <200109042257.KAA225290@atlas.otago.ac.nz>, "Richard A. O'Keefe" <ok@atlas.otago.ac.nz> writes:
> > I do remember having trouble with empty table cells, so I don't ever write
> > them any more, but it was sufficiently long ago that I no longer recall why.
> 
> Probably because most rendering engines don't display a cell border around an
> empty cell.

Actually, the cell itself usually "collapses".  Thus, there is no
background fill rendered, and no border.  Further, if all cells in a
given row or column are empty, the table will render as if the row or
column didn't exist at all.  This is contrary to what most people think
of when referring to an empty cell (namely, a reserved space which
doesn't happen to have any text or graphic, but still takes up space as
if it contained a line of text with the default formatting) and so
&nbsp; is used to provide that line of text without actually showing any
text.  This is very similar to the <p>&nbsp;</p> issue.

Received on Tuesday, 4 September 2001 20:11:38 UTC