A rowspan on a 'tr' in html email?

Community
1

This may sound naive, but;
I am trying to get my head around html emails- which entails learning to code the ‘wrong’ or oldschool way. (I only started with web about a year ago- and am only familiar with good semantics/css coding)- So this whole designing with tables is really confusing.
I am using the sitepoint book (stunning html emails) which is very insightful for just about everything EXCEPT the coding.
I have been studying it closely (and painfully), and begin to get the jist of things. What I don’t understand, and can’t find an explanation for is this:

What is the deal of using a rowspan on a row? I thought that rowspan was for td and th. I don’t understand the structural working here.

Can someone shead some light here?

2

The ROWSPAN is not available on a table row so without an example I don’t have a clue and it doesn’t seem to make any sense.

3

Yes, that is exactly what I thought (I had checked MANY references before I made my first post). also why I am so confused: site point uses it in their sample code:
here an excerpt:

<tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
          <td align="center" class="dotsHoriz"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
              <tr align="left" rowspan="3" valign="top">
                <td width="15" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><p>&nbsp;</p></td>
                <td width="330" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="mainbar"><p><a name="article2" href="#"><img src="http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/images/000007532236.jpg" alt="So the tall hitman says to the short hitman..." width="330" height="165" /></a></p>

                  <h3><a href="#">Hot Hats for Henchman</a></h3>
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<p>Beware, not every head can handle a hat, so take our hat quiz before you buy.</p>
                  <p class="more"><a href="#">Meet the milliner</a></p></td>
                <td width="15" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="dotsVert"><p>&nbsp;</p></td>
                <td width="15" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><p>&nbsp;</p></td>
                <td width="190" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="sidebar"><p><a href="#"><img src="http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/images/000000222930.jpg" alt="How to aim your gun like a real man would" width="190" height="165"></a></p>

                  <h3><a href="#">Never outshoot the boss!</a></h3>
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                <p class="more"><a href="#">Read more</a></p></td>
                <td width="15" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><p>&nbsp;</p></td>
              </tr>
            </table></td>
        </tr>

I also attached the file, so it is in its context.

Got any ideas here what they are doing here?

4

Actually, I had never paid attention to this. I have never used it that way and I can’t really say why they do this. I guess to avoid a certain bug. That would be the only explanation I can find.

According to the recommendation, the attribute rowspan should be used in TD and TH elements.

5

It might be Book Errata or something? Else some absolutely weird hack regarding an long forgotten email client. Maybe this should be moved to the SitePoint Books forums.

6

Yep. I’m moving it. After looking for 30 min. I couldn’t get any satisfactory answers about this, if any at all. I did find a tutorial which used it ( :eek: ) but it didn’t say a thing about why this worked.