CSS2.x fixed table layout

    I'm a little unclear about how fixed-layout tables are supposed to 
behave in CSS2 and CSS2.1 (the wording's basically the same between 
the two), section 17.5.2.  It comes to this: in the absence of 
explicitly declared column elements, or styles assigned to column 
elements, do table cells count for the purposes of calculating column 
element widths, or can cells protrude from their columns?  I'm not 
aware of any language that says one way or the other, and we do have 
precedent for elements being visually wider than their parents.
    Is this covered by the restriction that table cells can't have 
margins, and thus can't have negative margins, and thus can't 
protrude?  If so, what happens when a column is set to have a width 
of 100px and a cell within the column has a width of 150px-- does the 
cell shrink, or the column grow?
    So I guess my question is actually about how cells and columns 
interact; once that's answered, I can figure out how fixed-layout 
tables will behave.  Oops, one other question: is only the first row 
of a fixed-layout table used to determine widths, or are all rows 
considered?

--
Eric A. Meyer  (eric@meyerweb.com)  http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/
Author, "Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide,"
  "Eric Meyer on CSS," "CSS 2.0 Programmer's Reference," and more
   http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/books/

Received on Friday, 4 October 2002 17:19:40 UTC