#### 33.4.9 Determining the width of table columns

The DITA table element is based on the OASIS model, which does not really provide a way to specify overall table size; all you get is @pgwide, which for XHTML means nothing at all. The colspec element has @colwidth, which “describes the column width”. For the simpletable element, DITA provides only @relcolwidth, with its odd n* method of setting percentages. Your best bet is to use CSS syntax and semantics for column “width”.

By default, table columns are adaptively sized in HTML output. You can specify a different sizing method in the configuration file. You can also override the default sizing method for particular tables.

In this section:

§33.4.9.1 Specifying a method for determining table column widths

§33.4.9.2 Overriding the default table column sizing method

§33.4.9.3 Maintaining the width of table columns via relative sizing

Previous Topic: 33.4.8.3 Excluding border, cellspacing, and cellpadding attributes

Next Topic: 33.4.9.1 Specifying a method for determining table column widths

Parent Topic: 33.4 Specifying table attributes

Sibling Topics:

33.4.1 Specifying attributes for all tables

33.4.2 Overriding attributes for selected tables

33.4.3 Assigning a CSS class to a table

33.4.4 Using PI markers to assign attributes to tables, rows, or cells

33.4.5 Specifying attributes for table rows

33.4.6 Specifying attributes for table cells

33.4.7 Eliminating automatically generated attributes

33.4.8 Adjusting borders, cell spacing, and cell padding

33.4.10 Deciding what to do with empty paragraphs in table cells