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Table Cell Colors
Robert B. Hess

    T
ables are a feature that many Web browsers have been adding support for, even though they aren't officially part of the approved HTML 2.0 specification. Tables are being considered for the W3C Standard HTML specification, but that is still being worked out.

New to the Internet Explorer version 2.0 is not only full table support (as you will find in many other browsers), but a few additional features that will help you gain a little more control over the presentation of tables on your page.

Here we will illustrate the use of the new BGCOLOR attribute with some interesting examples.

The BGCOLOR attribute can be associated with the TD tag (for coloring an individual cell), or with the TABLE tag (for specifying a color for the entire table). You can assign the color values by name or by hexidecimal value.

Here is a table that illustrates the possible named values:


Black Silver Gray White
Maroon Red Purple Fuchsia
Green Lime Olive Yellow
Navy Blue Teal Aqua
As an example of using hexidecimal values for the BGCOLOR entry, the following table illustrates the gray shades available between black and white. I am doing this with code that assigns an anchor to each cell that is colored using a hexidecimal value. If you move your cursor over one of these cells, the anchor name will appear in the status bar. The name of the anchor is the RGB value associated with that cell. For example, the first cell following BLACK is coded with:

	<TD width=20 bgcolor=#111111>
	<A name=#111111 href=#111111>&NBSP;&NBSP;&NBSP;
	</A> 
This code will both name and link this cell to the anchor #111111, so when you move your mouse over the cell, the status bar will reflect the RGB value you need to specify for the BGCOLOR.
(Note: You can view this best if you turn off underlining of links.)

Black                                                                                     White
Here are some similar tables for the shades of red, green, and blue.
(Note: If you are using a 256-color display, some of these colors may appear to be the same.)

RED:
                                                                                                                                                          
GREEN:
                                                                                                                                                          
BLUE:
                                                                                                                                                          
PURPLE:
                                                                                                                                                          
YELLOW:
                                                                                                                                                          
CYAN:
                                                                                                                                                          
System Colors:
                                                                               
Rainbow:
                                                                                                                                                
I've also created a full color chart that is specifically designed for the palette that Internet Explorer uses.

Robert B. Hess
roberth@microsoft.com
One Microsoft Way
Redmond WA, 98052-6399


© 1996 Microsoft Corporation