What is the correct usage of 'align' vs 'text-align'

alignment text-align
Darth picture Darth · Sep 23, 2010 · Viewed 11.6k times · Source

I am trying to figure out the difference between putting an align attribute on a table cell vs using text-align css attribute. The code below shows different results in IE vs Others. In IE, the align ends up aligning every sub child, so the text 'test' is centered aligned, while in FF/Webkit this is not the case and it remains left aligned. What is the correct behavior?

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

 <head>
  <style>
   table { width: 60%; }
   table td { border: 1px solid black; }
  </style>
 </head>

 <body>
  <table>
   <tbody>
    <tr>
     <td align='center'>
      <table>
       <tbody>
        <tr>
         <td>test</td>
        </tr>
       </tbody>
      </table>
     </td>
    </tr>
   </tbody>
  </table>
 </body>

</html>

Answer

Robusto picture Robusto · Sep 23, 2010

The align attribute is old-style "tag-soup" HTML, deprecated according to an official W3 document. Prefer CSS styling, as with 

<td style="text-align: center;">
    <!-- Content -->
</td>

Better still, give the TD a className (e.g., a semantic className like "center") and set that style in the stylesheet:

td.center {
    text-align: center;
}

Related questions

Align printf output in Java

I need to display a list of items with their prices from an array and would like to align the prices. I almost have it working but needs improvements. Below is the code and the output. Any ideas how to …

Read More
HTML5 How to align a table to center inside a form?

I have a <form>, and inside that form, I have a <table>. I tried using text-align: center and align-items:center on that form, but the table inside it is still aligned to the left (while the …

Read More
Aligning Text with a ContentControl using the HorizontalContentAlignment property

I am attempting to apply a "text alignment" to a ContentControl. Since the ContentControl does not have a horizontal or vertical text alignment property like the TextBlock, I am attempting to use the ContentControl's HorizontalContentAlignment property. My problem is that …

Read More