<colspec>

Content model

EMPTY

Empty

Attributes

The following attributes are available on this element: localization attributes, ID and conref attributes, @align, @base, @char, @charoff, @class, @colsep, @outputclass, @rowheader, @rowsep, and the attributes defined below.

@colnum

Specifies the number of the column in the table, where 1 represents the first logical column.

@colname

Specifies a name for the column. The <entry> element can use the @colname attribute to refer to the column.

@colwidth

Specifies the column width. Valid values are either a proportional or fixed measure:

Proportional measure

Specifies the width of each column in relationship to the width of the other columns. The value is a space-separated list of relative column widths. Each column width is specified as a positive integer or decimal number followed by an asterisk character.

Fixed measure

A value of a coefficient followed by a unit of measurement. The coefficients are positive integers or fixed point numbers. The fixed unit values are case-insensitive. The allowed units of measure are cm (centimeters), in (inches), pi (picas), and pt (points). The default unit of measure is pt.

If the @colwidth attribute is not specified or is empty, a proportional measure of 1* is assumed.

@align (complex table attributes)

Specifies the horizontal alignment of text in table entries. The following values are valid:

left

Indicates left alignment of the text.

right

Indicates right alignment of the text.

center

Indicates center alignment of the text.

justify

Justifies the contents to both the left and the right.

char

Indicates character alignment. The text is aligned with the first occurrence of the character specified by the @char attribute.

-dita-use-conref-target

See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.

The @align attribute is available on the following table elements: <colspec>, <entry>, and <tgroup>.

@base

Specifies metadata about the element. It is often used as a base for specialized attributes that have a simple syntax for values, but which are not conditional processing attributes.

The @base attribute takes a space-delimited set of values. However, when serving as a container for generalized attributes, the attribute values will be more complex. See Attribute generalization for more details.

@char (complex table attributes)

Specifies the alignment character, which is the character that is used for aligning the text in table entries. This attribute applies when align="char". A value of "" (the null string) means there is no aligning character.

For example, if align="char" and char="." are specified, then text in the table entry aligns with the first occurrence of the period within the entry. This might be useful if decimal alignment is required.

The @char attribute is available on the following table elements: <colspec> and <entry>.

@charoff (complex table attributes)

Specifies the horizontal offset of the alignment character that is specified by the @char attribute. The value is a greater-than-zero number that is less than or equal to 100. It represents the percentage of the current column width by which the text is offset to the left of the alignment character.

For example, if align="char", char=".", and charoff="50" are all specified, then text in the table entry is aligned 50% of the distance to the left of the first occurrence of the period character within the table entry.

The @charoff attribute is available on the following table elements: <colspec> and <entry>.

@class (not for use by authors)

This attribute is not for use by authors. If an editor displays @class attribute values, do not edit them. Specifies a default value that defines the specialization ancestry of the element. Its predefined values allow DITA tools to work correctly with specialized elements. In a generalized DITA document the @class attribute value in the generalized instance might differ from the default value for the @class attribute for the element as given in the DTD or schema. See The class attribute rules and syntax for more information. This attribute is specified on every element except for the <dita> container element. It is always specified with a default value, which varies for each element.

@colname

Specifies a name for the column. The <entry> element can use the @colname attribute to refer to the column.

@colnum

Specifies the number of the column in the table, where 1 represents the first logical column.

@colsep (complex table attributes)

Specifies whether to render column separators between table entries. The following values are valid: 0 (no separators) and 1 (separators).

The @colsep attribute is available on the following table elements: <colspec>, <entry>, <table>, and <tgroup>.

@colwidth

Specifies the column width. Valid values are either a proportional or fixed measure:

Proportional measure

Specifies the width of each column in relationship to the width of the other columns. The value is a space-separated list of relative column widths. Each column width is specified as a positive integer or decimal number followed by an asterisk character.

Fixed measure

A value of a coefficient followed by a unit of measurement. The coefficients are positive integers or fixed point numbers. The fixed unit values are case-insensitive. The allowed units of measure are cm (centimeters), in (inches), pi (picas), and pt (points). The default unit of measure is pt.

If the @colwidth attribute is not specified or is empty, a proportional measure of 1* is assumed.

@conaction

Specifies how the element content will be pushed into a new location. The following values are valid:

mark

The element acts as a marker when pushing content before or after the target, to help ensure that the push action is valid. The element with conaction="mark" also specifies the target of the push action with @conref. Content inside of the element with conaction="mark" is not pushed to the new location.

pushafter

Content from this element is pushed after the location specified by @conref on the element with conaction="mark". The element with conaction="pushafter" is the first sibling element after the element with conaction="mark".

pushbefore

Content from this element is pushed before the location specified by @conref on the element with conaction="mark". The element with conaction="pushbefore" is the first sibling element before the element with conaction="mark".

pushreplace

Content from this element replaces any content from the element referenced by the @conref attribute. A second element with conaction="mark" is not used when using conaction="pushreplace".

-dita-use-conref-target

See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.

See The conaction attribute for examples and details about the syntax.

@conkeyref

Specifies a key name or a key name with an element ID that acts as an indirect reference to reusable content. The referenced content is used in place of the content of the current element. See The conkeyref attribute for more details about the syntax and behaviors.

@conref

Specifies a URI that references a DITA element. The referenced content is used in place of the content of the current element. See The conref attribute for examples and details about the syntax.

@conrefend

Specifies a URI that references the last element in a sequence of elements, with the first element of the sequence specified by @conref. The referenced sequence of elements is used in place of the content of the current element. See The conrefend attribute for examples and details about the syntax.

@dir

Identifies or overrides the text directionality. The following values are valid:

lro

Indicates an override of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, forcing the element into left-to-right mode.

ltr

Indicates left-to-right.

rlo

Indicates an override of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, forcing the element into right-to-left mode.

rtl

Indicates right-to-left.

-dita-use-conref-target

See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.

See The dir attribute for more information.

@id

Specifies an identifier for the current element. This ID is the target for references by @href and @conref attributes and for external applications that refer to DITA or LwDITA content. This attribute is defined with the XML data type NMTOKEN, except where noted for specific elements within the language reference.

See id attribute for more details.

@outputclass

Specifies a role that the element is playing. The role must be consistent with the basic semantic and expectations for the element. In particular, the @outputclass attribute can be used for styling during output processing; HTML output will typically preserve @outputclass for CSS processing.

@rowheader (complex table attributes)

Specifies whether the entries in the respective column are row headers. The following values are valid:

firstcol

Indicates that entries in the first column of the table are row headers. This applies when the @rowheader attribute is specified on the <table> element.

headers

Indicates that entries of the column that is described using the <colspec> element are row headers. This applies when the @rowheader attribute is specified on the <colspec> element.

norowheader

Indicates that entries in the first column are not row headers. This applies when the @rowheader attribute is specified on the <table> element.

-dita-use-conref-target

See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.

Note (non-normative):

This attribute is not part of the OASIS Exchange Table Model upon which DITA tables are based. Some processors or output formats might not support all values.

The @rowheader attribute is available on the following table elements: <table> and <colspec>.

@rowsep (complex table attributes)

Specifies whether to render row separators between table entries. The following values are valid: 0 (no separators) and 1 (separators).

The @rowsep attribute is available on the following table elements: <colspec>, <entry>, <row>, <table>, and <tgroup>.

@translate

Specifies whether the content of the element should be translated. The following values are valid: yes, no, and -dita-use-conref-target.

See Element-by-element recommendations for translators for suggested processing defaults for each element.

@xml:lang

Specifies the language and optional locale of the content that is contained in an element. Valid values are language tokens or the null string. The @xml:lang attribute and its values are described in the Extensible Markup Language 1.0 specification, fifth edition.