table, tr, and td tags can have optional attributes, including:
| width= | value is either a number of pixels or a percentage of the current width |
| bgcolor= | value is the background color of the cell |
<table width="90%" border="1" bgcolor="#FFCCFF"> <tr align="center"> <td width="50" bgcolor="#CCFFFF">50px</td> <td>This is the middle cell.</td> <td bgcolor="#FFFFCC" width="50"></td> </tr> </table>
| 50 px | This is the middle cell. |
Unfortunately, MSIE and Netscape handle the above example differently. MSIE treats the "50" as a maximum; Netscape treats it as a preferred minimum. Netscape ignores background colors for empty cells; MSIE uses the table background color in the space between cells.
Moral: preview your pages in both browsers!