Table Techniques - Caption

It appears that we've reached consensus on these 3 rules:

TH Elements
Data tables must have TH elements.
Layout tables must not have TH elements.

Summary
Data tables must have a summary (can't be NULL).
Layout tables must have a summary. It may be NULL or text to describe the
table.

Caption
Data tables may have captions.
Layout tables may not have captions.

Now on to the more difficult table decisions...

The current techniques document states:
"A table caption describes the nature of the table in one to three
sentences."

Proposed change:
"A table caption describes the table content. It must be less than 150
characters. [English]"

Discussion:
I feel that "content" is more accurate than "nature". Any other suggested
wording?
I think we should stick with a character based length rather than a sentence
based length. I've selected 150 characters as the maximum because that's
what we're using for Alt text. Is this too long?

The current techniques document states:
"A caption may not always be necessary."

Proposed change:
"A table caption is optional."

Discussion:
Is there a case where the table caption is necessary?

The current techniques document states:
"If a CAPTION is not provided, use the "title" attribute on the TABLE
element to describe the nature of the table in a few words."

Proposed change:
"If a CAPTION is not provided, use the 'title' attribute on the TABLE
element to describe the table content. The title must be less than 150
characters."

Discussion:
Data tables must have a caption or a title. What about both title and
caption?
It should have the same requirements as the caption. Maybe shorter?

Chris

Received on Wednesday, 6 August 2003 10:01:03 UTC