Ask the CSS Guy

Kotatsu - a simple html table generator

It's been a long time since I've used Dreamweaver for web development. I only find myself missing it when I need to create a table, especially when I want to have all cells in a particular column have a class. (I'm well aware of <colgroup>, I just don't subscribe.)

So I created a tool to help create a table and throw in column classes quickly. I gave it a name so I can put it out there and let others use it, too.

It's called kotatsu.

Comments (17)

Nacho said:

Cool. Thanx.

Michi said:

Cool! Might be handy for me here and there...

What's the meaning of "kotatsu" ? some kind of abbreviation?

Chris Heilmann said:

Nice, but these are not tables. Tables are data constructs and need a summary, a caption and TH elements with scope attributes to be accessible and useful. All of these are also splendid hooks for styling which I've proven with the CSS table gallery: http://icant.co.uk/csstablegallery/

CSS Guy said:

@Michi,

'Kotatsu' is a Japanese word for a specialized type of table. The html tables that the tool creates aren't quite as special as real kotatsus (for one, they don't give off any heat). But I thought the name was cool, so there you have it.

@Chris,

Completely agree. Those elements are easily inserted by hand. I built the tool to do the parts that I couldn't do as quickly by hand.

Jennifer said:

Awesome! Thanks, you jQuery master, you.

Felipe Ruiz said:

Why You don't use <thead> and <tfoot> on Kotatsu? Is not a good practice?

CSS Guy said:

@Felipe

It's a great practice. For me, thead and tfoot are usually one row long, so it's just as easy for me to include it by hand.

michelangelo said:

In the past I have used excel to add repetitive elements or attributes to tables or lists. You have to go through a text editor to clear all the gunk before pasting it into html, but otherwise It is surprisingly effective, and you can use summary, caption, th, etc.

CSS Guy said:

@michelangelo:

That sounds pretty cool! If you demo that anywhere, please send a link.

John Faulds said:

Wouldn't it be better if the generated output was all lowercase?

Josh Keegan Gross said:

What do you use now that you don't use Dreamweaver?

CSS Guy said:

@John:

Is it not lowercase? Seems to do that here (os x ff2).

@Josh:

BBEdit. When on windows - just homesite.

Chris said:

Thanks! This is an awesome tool! A quick way to remove rows and columns would be amazing as well.

Thanks again!

Matthew 'Web Design' Adams said:

Cool Post. Is it bad that i had to pause to think about the human test question?

Artem said:

I think this certainly well, but itself use little other soft. The Type Allaire HomeSite. Well or the tables generate in FTP CuteFTP immediately!

Tio Luke said:

Simple and easy to use are might be the factors make this tool great. For me, it is useful. Thanks for sharing.

emad said:

good work

 

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