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Specifies column-based defaults for the table properties.

Members Table

The following table lists the members exposed by the col object.

Attributes/Properties

Show: Attributes/Properties Behaviors Collections Events Methods Objects Styles

Attribute Property Description ALIGN align Sets or retrieves the alignment of the object relative to the display or table. ariaBusy   Sets or retrieves the busy state of this element. ariaChecked   Sets or retrieves the checked state of this element. ariaDisabled   Sets or retrieves the disabled state of this element. ariaExpanded   Sets or retrieves the expanded state of this element. ariaHaspopup   Sets or retrieves a value indicating whether this element may display a pop-up window. ariaHidden   Sets or retrieves the hidden state of this element. ariaInvalid   Sets or retrieves the invalid state of this element. ariaLevel   Sets or retrieves the level of this element. ariaMultiselect   Sets or retrieves the multiple-selection state of this element. ariaPosinset   Sets or retrieves the current position of an item within a set. ariaPressed   Sets or retrieves the pressed state of a button that can be toggled. ariaReadonly   Sets or retrieves the read-only state of this element. ariaRequired   Sets or retrieves the form-completion requirement of this element. ariaSecret   Sets or retrieves the secret state of this element. ariaSelected   Sets or retrieves the selection state of this element. ariaSetsize   Sets or retrieves the set size of this element. ATOMICSELECTION Specifies whether the element and its contents must be selected as a whole, indivisible unit. attributes   Retrieves a collection of attributes of the object. BGCOLOR Sets the background color behind an object. canHaveChildren Gets a value indicating whether the object can contain child objects. canHaveHTML Sets or retrieves the value indicating whether the object can contain rich HTML markup. CH ch Sets or retrieves a value that you can use to implement your own ch functionality for the object. CHOFF chOff Sets or retrieves a value that you can use to implement your own chOff functionality for the object. CLASS className Sets or retrieves the class of the object. clientHeight Retrieves the height of the object including padding, but not including margin, border, or scroll bar. clientLeft Retrieves the distance between the offsetLeft property and the true left side of the client area. clientTop Retrieves the distance between the offsetTop property and the true top of the client area. clientWidth Retrieves the width of the object including padding, but not including margin, border, or scroll bar. counter-increment   counterIncrement Sets or retrieves a list of counters to increment. counter-reset   counterReset Sets or retrieves a list of counters to create or reset to zero. DIR dir Sets or retrieves the reading order of the object. firstChild Retrieves a reference to the first child in the childNodes collection of the object. ID id Retrieves the string identifying the object. innerHTML Retrieves the HTML between the start and end tags of the object. isContentEditable Gets the value that indicates whether the user can edit the contents of the object. isDisabled Gets the value that indicates whether the user can interact with the object. isMultiLine Retrieves the value indicating whether the content of the object contains one or more lines. isTextEdit Retrieves whether a TextRange object can be created using the object. LANG lang Sets or retrieves the language to use. lastChild Retrieves a reference to the last child in the childNodes collection of an object. -ms-box-sizing   msBoxSizing Sets or retrieves the box model to use for object sizing. nextSibling Retrieves a reference to the next child of the parent for the object. nodeName Retrieves the name of a particular type of node. nodeType Retrieves the type of the requested node. nodeValue Sets or retrieves the value of a node. offsetHeight Retrieves the height of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. offsetLeft Retrieves the calculated left position of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. offsetParent Retrieves a reference to the container object that defines the offsetTop and offsetLeft properties of the object. offsetTop Retrieves the calculated top position of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. offsetWidth Retrieves the width of the object relative to the layout or coordinate parent, as specified by the offsetParent property. onOffBehavior Gets an object that indicates whether the specified Microsoft DirectAnimation behavior is running. outerHTML Sets or retrieves the object and its content in HTML. ownerDocument Retrieves the document object associated with the node. parentElement Retrieves the parent object in the object hierarchy. parentNode Retrieves the parent object in the document hierarchy. parentTextEdit Retrieves the container object in the document hierarchy that can be used to create a TextRange containing the original object. previousSibling Retrieves a reference to the previous child of the parent for the object. readyState Retrieves the current state of the object. role   Sets or retrieves the role for this element. scopeName Gets the namespace defined for the element. scrollHeight Retrieves the scrolling height of the object. scrollLeft Sets or retrieves the distance between the left edge of the object and the leftmost portion of the content currently visible in the window. scrollTop Sets or retrieves the distance between the top of the object and the topmost portion of the content currently visible in the window. scrollWidth Retrieves the scrolling width of the object. sourceIndex Retrieves the ordinal position of the object, in source order, as the object appears in the document's all collection. SPAN span Sets or retrieves the number of columns in the group. STYLE Sets an inline style for the element. tagName Retrieves the tag name of the object. tagUrn Sets or gets the Uniform Resource Name (URN) specified in the namespace declaration. uniqueID Retrieves an autogenerated, unique identifier for the object. VALIGN vAlign Sets or retrieves how text and other content are vertically aligned within the object that contains them. WIDTH width Sets or retrieves the width of the object. Behavior Description clientCaps Provides information about features supported by Internet Explorer, as well as a way for installing browser components on demand. download Downloads a file and notifies a specified callback function when the download is complete. homePage Contains information about a user's homepage. Collection Description all Returns a reference to the collection of elements contained by the object. attributes Retrieves a collection of attributes of the object. behaviorUrns Returns a collection of Uniform Resource Name (URN) strings identifying the behaviors attached to the element. childNodes Retrieves a collection of HTML Elements and TextNode objects that are direct descendants of the specified object. children Retrieves a collection of DHTML Objects that are direct descendants of the object. Event Description onlayoutcomplete Fires when the print or print preview layout process finishes filling the current LayoutRect object with content from the source document. onreadystatechange Fires when the state of the object has changed. Method Description addBehavior Attaches a behavior to the element. appendChild Appends an element as a child to the object. applyElement Makes the element either a child or parent of another element. attachEvent Binds the specified function to an event, so that the function gets called whenever the event fires on the object. clearAttributes Removes all attributes and values from the object. cloneNode Copies a reference to the object from the document hierarchy. componentFromPoint Returns the component located at the specified coordinates via certain events. contains Checks whether the given element is contained within the object. detachEvent Unbinds the specified function from the event, so that the function stops receiving notifications when the event fires. dragDrop Initiates a drag event. fireEvent Fires a specified event on the object. getAdjacentText Returns the adjacent text string. getAttribute   Retrieves the value of the specified attribute. getAttribute Retrieves the value of the specified attribute. getAttributeNode Gets an attribute object referenced by the attribute.name property. getBoundingClientRect Retrieves an object that specifies the bounds of a collection of TextRectangle objects. getClientRects Retrieves a collection of rectangles that describes the layout of the contents of an object or range within the client. Each rectangle describes a single line. getElementsByTagName Retrieves a collection of objects based on the specified element name. getExpression Retrieves the expression for the given property. hasAttribute   Determines whether an attribute with the specified name exists. hasChildNodes Returns a value that indicates whether the object has children. insertAdjacentElement Inserts an element at the specified location. insertBefore Inserts an element into the document hierarchy as a child node of a parent object. mergeAttributes Copies all read/write attributes to the specified element. normalize Merges adjacent TextNode objects to produce a normalized document object model. querySelector   Retrieves the first Document Object Model (DOM) element node from descendants of the starting element node that match any selector within the supplied selector string. querySelectorAll   Retrieves all DOM element nodes from descendants of the starting element node that match any selector within the supplied selector strings. removeAttribute   Removes the given attribute from the object. removeAttribute Removes the given attribute from the object. removeAttributeNode Removes an attribute object from the object. removeBehavior Detaches a behavior from the element. removeChild Removes a child node from the object. removeExpression Removes the expression from the specified property. removeNode Removes the object from the document hierarchy. replaceAdjacentText Replaces the text adjacent to the element. replaceChild Replaces an existing child element with a new child element. replaceNode Replaces the object with another element. scrollIntoView Causes the object to scroll into view, aligning it either at the top or bottom of the window. setAttribute   Sets the value of the specified attribute. setAttribute Sets the value of the specified attribute. setAttributeNode Sets an attribute object node as part of the object. setExpression Sets an expression for the specified object. swapNode Exchanges the location of two objects in the document hierarchy. Object Description currentStyle Represents the cascaded format and style of the object as specified by global style sheets, inline styles, and HTML attributes. runtimeStyle Represents the cascaded format and style of the object that overrides the format and style specified in global style sheets, inline styles, and HTML attributes. style Represents the current settings of all possible inline styles for a given element. Style attribute Style property Description :first-child :first-child Applies one or more styles to any element that is the first child of its parent. :hover :hover Sets the style of an element when the user hovers the mouse pointer over the element. background background Sets or retrieves up to five separate background properties of the object. background-attachment backgroundAttachment Sets or retrieves how the background image is attached to the object within the document. background-color backgroundColor Sets or retrieves the color behind the content of the object. background-image backgroundImage Sets or retrieves the background image of the object. background-position backgroundPosition Sets or retrieves the position of the background of the object. background-position-x backgroundPositionX Sets or retrieves the x-coordinate of the backgroundPosition property. background-position-y backgroundPositionY Sets or retrieves the y-coordinate of the backgroundPosition property. background-repeat backgroundRepeat Sets or retrieves how the backgroundImage property of the object is tiled. behavior behavior Sets or retrieves the location of the Dynamic HTML (DHTML) behavior. clear clear Sets or retrieves whether the object allows floating objects on its left side, right side, or both, so that the next text displays past the floating objects. color color Sets or retrieves the color of the text of the object. content   content Sets or retrieves generated content to insert before or after an element. cursor cursor Sets or retrieves the type of cursor to display as the mouse pointer moves over the object. direction direction Sets or retrieves the reading order of the object. display display Sets or retrieves whether the object is rendered. font font Sets or retrieves a combination of separate font properties of the object. Alternatively, sets or retrieves one or more of six user-preference fonts. font-family fontFamily Sets or retrieves the name of the font used for text in the object. font-size fontSize Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the font size used for text in the object. font-style fontStyle Sets or retrieves the font style of the object as italic, normal, or oblique. font-variant fontVariant Sets or retrieves whether the text of the object is in small capital letters. fontWeight Gets the numeric weight of the font of the object. font-weight fontWeight Sets or retrieves the weight of the font of the object. layout-grid layoutGrid Sets or retrieves the composite document grid properties that specify the layout of text characters. layout-grid-mode layoutGridMode Sets or retrieves whether the text layout grid uses two dimensions. letter-spacing letterSpacing Sets or retrieves the amount of additional space between letters in the object. line-height lineHeight Sets or retrieves the distance between lines in the object. orphans   orphans Sets or retrieves the minimum number of lines of a paragraph that must appear at the bottom of a page. overflow overflow Sets or retrieves a value indicating how to manage the content of the object when the content exceeds the height or width of the object. padding padding Sets or retrieves the amount of space to insert between the object and its margin or, if there is a border, between the object and its border. padding-bottom paddingBottom Sets or retrieves the amount of space to insert between the bottom border of the object and the content. padding-left paddingLeft Sets or retrieves the amount of space to insert between the left border of the object and the content. padding-right paddingRight Sets or retrieves the amount of space to insert between the right border of the object and the content. padding-top paddingTop Sets or retrieves the amount of space to insert between the top border of the object and the content. pixelBottom Sets or retrieves the bottom position of the object. pixelHeight Sets or retrieves the height of the object. pixelLeft Sets or retrieves the left position of the object. pixelRight Sets or retrieves the right position of the object. pixelTop Sets or retrieves the top position of the object. pixelWidth Sets or retrieves the width of the object. posBottom Sets or retrieves the bottom position of the object in the units specified by the bottom attribute. posHeight Sets or retrieves the height of the object in the units specified by the height attribute. posLeft Sets or retrieves the left position of the object in the units specified by the left attribute. posRight Sets or retrieves the right position of the object in the units specified by the right attribute. posTop Sets or retrieves the top position of the object in the units specified by the top attribute. posWidth Sets or retrieves the width of the object in the units specified by the width attribute. text-autospace textAutospace Sets or retrieves the autospacing and narrow space width adjustment of text. text-decoration textDecoration Sets or retrieves a value that indicates whether the text in the object has blink, line-through, overline, or underline decorations. textDecorationBlink Sets or retrieves a Boolean value that indicates whether the object's textDecoration property has a value of "blink." textDecorationLineThrough Sets or retrieves a Boolean value indicating whether the text in the object has a line drawn through it. textDecorationNone Sets or retrieves the Boolean value indicating whether the textDecoration property for the object has been set to none. textDecorationOverline Sets or retrieves a Boolean value indicating whether the text in the object has a line drawn over it. textDecorationUnderline Sets or retrieves whether the text in the object is underlined. text-transform textTransform Sets or retrieves the rendering of the text in the object. text-underline-position textUnderlinePosition Sets or retrieves the position of the underline decoration that is set through the textDecoration property of the object. unicode-bidi unicodeBidi Sets or retrieves the level of embedding with respect to the bidirectional algorithm. vertical-align verticalAlign Sets or retrieves the vertical alignment of the object. visibility visibility Sets or retrieves whether the content of the object is displayed. widows   widows Sets or retrieves the minimum number of lines of a paragraph that must appear at the top of a page. word-spacing wordSpacing Sets or retrieves the amount of additional space between words in the object. z-index zIndex Sets or retrieves the stacking order of positioned objects. zoom zoom Sets or retrieves the magnification scale of the object.

Remarks

COL elements can be nested within a COLGROUP element. If this is done, the nested COL attributes override the COLGROUP attributes.

You can use the COL and COLGROUP elements for similar purposes. However, you must use the COLGROUP element to determine where table internal dividing lines (rules) should go. This is illustrated in the example below.

Use the SPAN attribute to specify the number of table columns that the COLGROUP defines. This attribute has a default value equal to one.

The table object and its associated elements have a separate table object model, which uses different methods than the general object model. For more information on the table object model, see How to Build Tables Dynamically.

This element is a block element.

This element does not require a closing tag.

Example

This example uses the col element to specify characteristics for default columns in a table.

<HTML>
<BODY>
<TABLE BORDER="2" RULES="groups">
<!-- RULES is set to "groups", which has no effect in this sample. For this 
attribute to work, you must use COLSPAN to define the groups of columns.-->
    <COL SPAN="2" STYLE="color:red">
    <COL STYLE="color:blue">
    <TR>
        <TD>This column is in the first group.</TD>
        <TD>This column is in the first group.</TD>
        <TD>This column is in the second group.</TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
        <TD>This column is in the first group.</TD>
        <TD>This column is in the first group.</TD>
        <TD>This column is in the second group.</TD>
    </TR>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>

This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Standards Information

This object is defined in HTML 4.0  and is defined in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 .

See Also

colGroup