Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 08:47, 9 February 2010

This page documents an English Misplaced Pages style guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

Shortcuts WP:ABBR WP:MOSABBR MOS:ABBR

Tables can be useful for a variety of content presentation on Misplaced Pages. This page discusses how tables should be written and where it makes sense to use tables.

Contents

The purpose of the title of a table is to name the table.

• The title and the headings of columns and headings of rows should:
  • be unambiguous, specific, and terse;
  • not explicitly refer to one another, unless doing so is shorter or clearer.

When tables are appropriate

Tables are perfect for organizing any information that is best presented in a row-and-column format. This might include:

• Mathematical tables
  • Multiplication tables
  • Tables of divisors
  • Lookup tables
• Lists of information
  • Equivalent words in two or more languages
  • Person, birthdate, occupation
  • Artist, album, year, and label

Often a list is best left as a list. Before you format a list in table form, consider whether the information will be more clearly conveyed by virtue of having rows and columns. If so, then a table is probably a good choice. If there is no obvious benefit to having rows and columns, then a table is probably not the best choice.

When tables may not be appropriate

• If a list is simple, it might be better left as a list. Simple lists do not need the row-and-column format that a table provides. (

{|
|1980
| Ultra Wave
|-
|1988
|What's Bootsy Doin'?
|-
|1994
|Blasters of the Universe
|-
|1994
|Fresh Outta 'P' University
|}

)

When tables should not be used

• Tables should not be used simply for layout. If the information you are editing is not tabular in nature, it probably does not belong in a table. Doing so makes the page harder to edit and wikimarkup should be used instead for data arrangement. Some examples when tables should not be used are:

• putting a caption under a photograph
• arranging a group of links
• desktop publishing
• page elements
• page orientation and positioning
• ;other strictly visual features.

(], not <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td>]</td></tr></table>)

Images

Often images are placed in an article by using a quirk of table rendering. Because a table can be floated to the left or right side of the screen, it has become common practice to use a simple one-celled table to place an image in a particular part of the screen:

Code:

{| align="right"
| ]
|}

This was a necessary workaround for old browsers, since it generates a consistent rendering of images in browsers which do not adequately support Cascading Style Sheets. However, by far the majority of browsers in use today should do just fine with style sheets.

Visual layout

Multiple columns, positioning, borders, and so on should be done with CSS—not tables—when possible.

Content forking

Do not make multiple pages of tables when data can be combined into sortable tables.

See also

• "Table (HTML)" older revision (about HTML tables and the equivalent wiki code)

• Misplaced Pages style guidelines
• General style guidelines