TechNote (Archived)

A background image in a table displays in browsers differently

Issue
A background image in a multi-celled table tiles in the background of the table in Internet Explorer but tiles in each cell of the table inNetscape.

ReasonNetscape and Internet Explorer support thebackground image in a multi-celled table differently.

Internet Explorer renders a background image in a multi-celled table so that the image tiles to fill the background of the table:

Netscape renders a background image in a multi-celled table so that the image tiles in each cell of the table:

Solution
An approach to get the image to tile in the background of the table rather than the table cells in Netscape would be to create a single-celled table with a background image and to nest the multi-celled table in it.However, that does not work. Netscape tiles the background image of the single-celled table in the cells of the nested multi-celled table.The workaround is to apply a transparent GIF as the background image of the nested multi-celled table.

To tile the image in the background of a table in Netscape, follow the steps below:

1	Create a single-celled table that has the same dimensions as that of the image used for the background.
2	Apply the chosen image as a background image to the single-celled table:
3	Insert a multi-celled table within the single-celled table:
4	Apply a transparent GIF as the background image of the nested multi-celled table: