OfficeOpenXML.com
 

Wordprocessing Tables

Related Open Office/ODF Discussion
Cell Properties

Cell-level properties are specified in <tcPr>. Each property is a child element of <tcPr>, and the cell properties take precedence over table and row properties.

<w:tcPr>
<w:tcMar>
<w:start w:w="1440" w:type="dxa"/>
</w:tcMar>
</w:tcPr>
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.70.

The most commonly used properties are shown below:

Elements/Properties:

ElementDescription
gridSpan This element defines the number of logical columns across which the cell spans. It has a single attribute w:val. See the discussion of <w:tblGrid> at Table Grid/Column Definition.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.17.
hideMark See Hide End of Table Cell Mark.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.21.
noWrap This element will prevent text from wrapping in the cell under certain conditions. It is a boolean property. E.g., <w:noWrap/>.

Note: This only affects the behavior of the cell when the tblLayout for the row is set to auto.

If the cell width is fixed, then noWrap specifies that the cell will not be smaller than that fixed value when other cells in the row are not at their minimum. If the cell width is set to auto or pct, then the content of the cell will not wrap.

Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.30.
shd See Table Cell Properties - Shading.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.33.
tcBorders See Table Cell Properties - Borders.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.67.
tcFitText Text within a cell can be contracted or expanded to fit the width of the cell using the <w:tcFitText w:val="true"/>. It has a single attribute val with boolean values of true/false.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.68.
Table Cell Fit Text
tcMar See Table Cell Properties - Margins.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.69.
tcW See Table Cell Properties - Width.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.72.
vAlign See Table Cell Properties - Vertical Alignment.
Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.84.
vMerge This element specifies that the cell is part of a vertically merged set of cells. defines the number of logical columns across which the cell spans. It has a single attribute w:val which specifies how the cell is part of a vertically merged region. The cell can be part of an existing group of merged cells or it can start a new group of merged cells. Possible values are:
  • continue -- the current cell continues a previously existing merge group
  • restart -- the corrent cell starts a new merge group

If omitted, the value is assumed to be continue. See the discussion of <w:tblGrid> at Table Grid/Column Definition.

Reference: ECMA-376, 3rd Edition (June, 2011), Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference § 17.4.85.


Related Open Document Format (ODF) Property:

Table cell properties are specified in the <style:table-cell-properties> element.

<style:style style:name="Table1.B2" style:family="table-cell">
<style:table-cell-properties fo:background-color="#00ffff" fo:padding="0.0382in" fo:border-left="0.0007in solid #000000" fo:border-right="none" fo:border-top="none" fo:border-bottom="0.0007in solid #000000">
<style:background-image/>
</style:table-cell-properties>
</style:style>
Reference: Open Document Format for Office Applications Version 1.2 (May, 2011) § 17.18.

The <style:table-cell-properties> element can have the following attributes:

AttributesDescription
fo:background-color

Specifies a color for the background of the cell.

fo:border, fo:border-bottom, fo:border-left, fo:border-right, fo:border-top

Specifies a border for the cell.

fo:padding, fo:padding-bottom, fo:padding-left, fo:padding-right, fo:padding-top

Specifies padding for the cell.

fo:wrap-option

Specifies whether text is to be wrapped. Possible values are no-wrap and wrap.

style:border-line-width, style:border-line-width-bottom, style:border-line-width-left, style:border-line-width-right, style:border-line-width-top

Specifies the width of borders where the border property is double. The value is a list of three white space-separated lengths. Thie first value specifies the width of the inner line, the second specifies the distance between the two lines, and the third specifies the width of the outer line.

style:cell-protect

Specifies how a cell is protected. Possible values are hidden-and-protected, none, protected and formula-hidden.

style:shadow

Specifies a shadow effect for the cell.

style:vertical-align

Specifies the vertical alignment of text. Possible values are automatic, bottom, middle, and top.

style:writing-mode

Specifies how the content should be written. Possible values are lr-tb, rl-tb, tb-rl, tb-lr, lr, rl, tb, and page.

Note that <style:table-cell-properties> can also contain a <style:background-image> element.