Caption

Table Caption Support Key: [2\|3\|3.2\|4] [X1\|X1.1] [IE2\|*M2A8\|N1.1\|O2.1*]	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
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Quick Statistics
End Tag:		Required
Standards Details:		HTML: In all 4.x DTDs XHTML: In all 1.0 and 1.1 DTDs
XHTML Modules:		Basic Tables, Tables
CSS 'display' Type:		"table-caption"
CSS Mapping:		NA
Default Rendering:		Content above or below a table
Official Docs:		HTML 4.x, XHTML 1.1

What is it?: The CAPTION element is an optional table component which displays a caption/title for the table directly above, below or to either side of the table. The CAPTION element is contained within the TABLE element, but is used at the same level as the table row element [TR] is.

Common Attributes
%Core%: [2|3| 3.2 |4] [X1|X1.1] [IE3|M|N4B2|O4]
%Accessibility%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4B1|M|N6|O5]
%Events%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4B1|M|N6B2|O4]
%Language%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE4|M|N6B1|O]
%Editing%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE5.5|M|N|O]
Specific Attributes
Align
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE2|M2A8|N1.1|O2.1]: Standards Details: Deprecated in HTML 4.x/XHTML 1.0. Dropped in XHTML 1.1 in favor of CSS; Required? No; Description:
The Align attribute specifies the alignment of the caption relative to the table. IE also defines extra Align values for horizontal alignment within the Caption.; Values:
Top, Bottom - regular attributes
Left, Center and Right (extra IE 2.0+ values for horizontal alignment of data within the table caption.)
Height
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O4-6.x]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute explicitly specifies the height of this block element in pixels.; Values: Positive integers.
VAlign
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE2|M|N|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This is an Internet Explorer attribute which takes the place of vertical caption positioning relative to the table.; Values: Top | Bottom
Width
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N|O4-6.x]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute explicitly specifies the width of this block element in pixels.; Values: Positive integers.

Example
[Using the Simple Table Model]: <table border="2" align="left" cellpadding="5" bordercolor="#ff0000" width="75%">
      <caption align="top">Juggling Capabilities of Waterfront Performers</caption>
      <tr> <th>Juggler</th> <th>Pins</th> <th>Bowling Balls</th> <th>Flaming Baseballs</th> </tr>
      <tr> <td>Bob</td> <td>5</td> <td>2</td> <td>5</td> </tr>
      <tr> <td>Larry</td> <td>2</td> <td>7!!!</td> <td>NA</td> </tr>
      <tr> <td>Julie the Great</td> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>20<br>(She IS great!)</td> </tr>
      <tr> <th colspan="4">NOTE: This is only a small sample</th> </tr>
</table>

Parent Model: <table>
Content Model: %In-line Content%

Tips & Tricks

The Table model in HTML (even the Simple Table Model) is easily the most complex markup structure in HTML. If you have general questions about this structure see the Table Overview.
Compatibility Tip: To enable Table caption contents to display well on browsers that do not support tables, it can be helpful to put either an extra space at the end of each table cell, or even better, put a <br> element at the end of the table cell in each row or caption. This should cause no display problems for browsers that support tables (as there is an implied line break anyway at the end of every table cell) and should greatly improve readability on older browsers.

Browser Peculiarities

Internet Explorer changed the intent of the ALIGN attribute in their 2.0 release. They made the ALIGN attribute indicate horizontal alignment of text within the caption (like the ALIGN attribute in TH and TD) rather than the intended use in the specifications to indicate alignment of CAPTION content position relative to the table. The relative-to-table attribute assigned to this duty was a new VALIGN attribute. The reference for the 3.0 version of Internet Explorer does not list the VALIGN attribute anymore and it would appear that it only supports the W3C model, but testing indicates that IE still supports the VALIGN attribute syntax as well.
The W3C Table model lists two additional attributes to ALIGN: Right and Left to allow Captions to be placed to the right or left side of a table. Popular browsers basically do not support this behavior. Interestingly, Opera 4-6.x DID attempt to render these attributes on the right/left side of a table, but it did so very poorly - often rendering the caption outside the page window on the left side or over other content on the right. It retracted support for these values in Opera 7.x.
[Test] The Tables specification says the CAPTION element should always come at the beginning of a table structure (this is to ensure proper rendering in progressive table display.) I have yet to see a browser misbehave if the CAPTION is placed say, just before the end of a table structure. It seems that as long as CAPTION is used at the same level as a table row hierarchy element, things will render fine.
[Tests: 1, 2] Opera 3.5+: CSS does not directly apply or inherit to this element.

Table Caption