11/8/2011 3:29 AM, Philippe Wittenbergh wrote:
>> In the table linked to below, I would like to center
>> the third, fourth, and fifth columns of data.
[...]
>> http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/_f-tuitionwaivers_runningstartNEW.aspx
>
> td:first-child + td + td,
> td:first-child + td + td + td,
> td:first-child + td + td + td + td {text-align: center;} [1]
That's how to do it using general techniques, but in special cases, we
can cut down the stylesheet by applying negative thinking:
td { text-align: center; }
td:first-child, td:first-child + td { text-align:left; }
That is, declare all cells as centered, then handle those (here, 1st and
2nd column) that shouldn't be centerd.
> Yeah, I know HTML4 allows for the 'align' attribute on <col>,
> but except for IE in quirks mode, it doesn't work anywhere.
It's still a useful precaution, since older versions of IE are not yet
extinct. It's simple to specify
<col>
<col>
<col align=center>
<col align=center>
<col align=center>
and it has no known drawbacks (when used to complement the CSS way, not
instead of it).
But there's quite challenge on the page mentioned. The fourth column
contains numbers with one or two digits. I don't think centering is
desirable here, as numbers should be right-aligned to be easily
comparable. (In the 3rd column, this does not matter, as numbers are all
of the x.xx pattern.) So what should you do if you want the numbers
right-aligned with respect to each other but centered horizontally
within the cells?
In practice, setting text-align: right; padding-right: 2em might work
sufficiently well, but it's really not a clean solution. I cannot figure
out an approach that does not use added markup (or scripting).
Besides, there's an entry of "10*", i.e. a number with an asterisk after
it. Normal typography rules say that the expression should be positioned
so that the "0" aligns with the last digit of other integers in the
column. Thus is something we cannot do any direct way in CSS. Notations
like "10*" just don't fit into the simple models. (Making the number a
link instead would be a more "www-like" approach, but it would not work
on paper.)
(The trickery that crept into my mind is based on left-padding the
numbers to the same width using FIGURE SPACE   for padding, and
centering the cells with a suitable left padding. It works under
favorable conditions but depends on font issues.)
Yucca
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