Misplaced Pages

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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.

Format

There are 2 table formats:

• sortable tables
• unsortable tables (this includes tables with merged cells)

The reason there is a clear division between these two types of tables is because even when just 2 cells are merged in any direction, the table becomes unsortable.

• There are tradeoffs for both formats, so use the one that:
  • conveys the most information
  • is the most clear

Contents

• The title of a table, row or column should
  • be unambiguous, specific, and terse;
  • be nouns or noun phrases (Effects of the wild, not About the effects of the wild);
  • not explicitly refer to one another, unless doing so is shorter or clearer; and
  • not use a, an, or the as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The economy of the Second Empire), unless by convention it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague).
• The final visible character of a title should not be a punctuation mark, unless the punctuation is part of a name (Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!) or an abbreviation is used (Inverness City F.C.).

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

  Main pages: Misplaced Pages:Image use policy and Misplaced Pages:Extended image syntax
  • 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:

  {| 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

  Main page: Misplaced Pages: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