<THEAD>

NN n/a IE 3 HTML 4

<THEAD>...</THEAD>

End Tag: Optional

A THEAD element is a special-purpose container of one or more rows of table cells rendered at the top of the table. No more than one THEAD element may be defined within a single TABLE element, and the THEAD element should be located in the source code immediately after the TABLE element's start tag. You are free to use any combination of TD and TH elements you like within the THEAD element. A THEAD element is a row grouping, like the TBODY and TFOOT elements. Navigator 4 ignores the THEAD tag and therefore renders the nested TR element(s) as regular TR elements in source code order.

Example

<TABLE COLS=3>
<THEAD>
<TR>
<TH>Time<TH>Event<TH>Location
</TR>
</THEAD>
<TFOOT>
<TR>
<TH>Time<TH>Event<TH>Location
</TR>
</TFOOT>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>7:30am-5:00pm<TD>Registration Open<TD>Main Lobby
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>9:00am-12:00pm<TD>Keynote Speakers<TD>Cypress Room
</TR>
</TBODY>
</TABLE>

Object Model Reference

IE	[window.]document.all.elementID

ALIGN

NN n/a IE 4 HTML 4

ALIGN="alignConstant"

Optional

Establishes the horizontal alignment characteristics of content within the row(s) covered by the THEAD element. The HTML 4.0 specification defines settings for the ALIGN attribute that are not yet reflected in the CSS specification. Therefore, this ALIGN attribute is not fully deprecated as it is for many other elements. As a rule, alignment should be specified by style sheet wherever possible.

Example

<THEAD ALIGN="center">

Value
HTML 4.0 and IE 4 have two sets of attribute values:

Value	IE 4	HTML 4.0
center	*	*
char	-	*
justify	-	*
left	*	*
right	*	*

The values center, left, and right are self-explanatory. The value justify is intended to space content so that text is justified down both left and right edges. For the value char, the CHAR attribute must also be set to specify the character on which alignment revolves. In the HTML 4.0 specification example, content that does not contain the character appears to be right-aligned to the location of the character in other rows of the same column. It is important to bear in mind that the ALIGN attribute applies to every cell of every row within the THEAD, including any TH element you specify for the table. If you want a different alignment for the row header, override the setting with a separate ALIGN attribute or text-align style sheet attribute for the individual TH elements.

Default

left

Object Model Reference

IE	[window.]document.all.elementID.align

BGCOLOR

NN n/a IE 4 HTML n/a

BGCOLOR="colorTripletOrName"

Optional

Establishes a fill color (behind the text and other content) for the cells contained by the THEAD element.

Example

<THEAD BGCOLOR="tan">

Value
A hexadecimal triplet or plain-language color name. A setting of empty is interpreted as "#000000" (black). See Appendix A for acceptable plain-language color names.

Default

Varies with browser, browser version, and operating system.

Object Model Reference

IE	[window.]document.all.elementID.bgColor

CHAR

NN n/a IE n/a HTML 4

CHAR="character"

Optional

The text character used as an alignment point for text within a cell. This attribute is of value only for the ALIGN attribute set to "char".

Example

<THEAD ALIGN="char" CHAR=".">

Value
Any single text character.

Default

None.

CHAROFF

NN n/a IE n/a HTML 4

CHAROFF="length"

Optional

Sets a specific offset point at which the character specified by the CHAR attribute is to appear within a cell. This attribute is provided in case the browser default positioning does not meet with the design goals of the table.

Example

<THEAD ALIGN="char" CHAR="." CHAROFF="80%">

Value
Any length value in pixels or percentage of cell space.

Default

None.

VALIGN

NN n/a IE 4 HTML 4

VALIGN="alignmentConstant"

Optional

Determines the vertical alignment of content within cells of the column(s) covered by the THEAD element. You can override the vertical alignment for a particular cell anywhere in the column.

Example

<THEAD VALIGN="bottom">

Value
Four constant values are recognized by both IE 4 and HTML 4.0: top | middle | bottom | baseline. With top and bottom, the content is rendered flush (or very close to it) to the top and bottom of the table cell. Set to middle (the default), the content floats perfectly centered vertically in the cell. When one cell's contents might wrap to multiple lines at common window widths (assuming a variable table width), it is advisable to set the VALIGN attribute to baseline. This assures that the character baseline of the first (or only) line of a cell's text aligns with the other cells in the row--usually the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement.

Default

middle

Object Model Reference

IE	[window.]document.all.elementID.vAlign