Doubled (tripled?) border

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In your request, you specifically said you needed to retain the double border but didn't say for what purpose. If it's just for looks, the easiest way is to change the border style.

Portal:Philosophy/Intro
Portal:Philosophy/Branches Portal:Philosophy/Gentopics
Portal:Philosophy/Gentopics
Associated Wikimedia
WikimediaForPortals

By the way, you might want to check out this reference for other border options.

fillable border

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You said "The double border I was after was to be adjustable, and fillable with color." If you're just talking a little bit of adjustment, you could change the border style. Thick can be pretty darned thick, after all. But if you need to take it to extremes you probably want to Catherine did - nesting tables using padding and background. So, let's define everything above as the "guts" of the table and play with borders.

fat but solid borders

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This table has a single border with a "thick" width


This table uses a single border of infinitely adjustable width (again, I picked 15 for no particular reason) and of a single color.


This table uses a double border of infinitely adjustable width (30 seemed nice this time) and of a single color. The "fill" between the lines has to stay white in this format, I think. (Someone better than me might know how to add a second color.)


This table uses the default "outset" format. The width is set in pixels and can be set as large or small as you like. I chose 15 for no special reason. I'm not sure how to make the color work in this format.

nested tables

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This table uses nested tables to mimic the border. The padding in the first line lets you set the thickness of the "border" and the background sets the color.

You also asked how to insert a table into another cell while retaining the border. That's essentially what I just did. The table above is a one-cell table nested inside another one-cell table. You could make that table as complicated as you need. I recommend against it, though. I prefer the control I get with a single table using colspans and rowspans.

A variation, using the above samples

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Portal:Philosophy/Intro
Portal:Philosophy/Branches Portal:Philosophy/Gentopics
Portal:Philosophy/Gentopics
Associated Wikimedia
WikimediaForPortals

Another variation

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Portal:Philosophy/Intro

Portal:Philosophy/Branches

Portal:Philosophy/Gentopics

Portal:Philosophy/Gentopics

Associated Wikimedia

WikimediaForPortals

Further modularize

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Portal:Philosophy/Intro

Portal:Philosophy/Branches

test test test test

test text test text

test text test text

Associated Wikimedia

WikimediaForPortals

Another division

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Portal:Philosophy/Intro

Portal:Philosophy/Branches

cats and dogs cats and dogs cats and dogs cats and dogs cats and dogs

mice and men mice and men mice and men mice and men mice and men mice and men mice and men

turtles and hares turtles and hares turtles and hares turtles and hares turtles and hares

bird and bees bird and bees bird and bees bird and bees bird and bees bird and bees bird and bees

Associated Wikimedia

WikimediaForPortals

Another module

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Portal:Philosophy/Intro

Portal:Philosophy/Branches

cats and dogs cats and dogs cats and dogs cats and dogs cats and dogs

mice and fleas mice and fleas mice and fleas mice and fleas mice and fleas

turtles and hares turtles and hares turtles and hares turtles and hares turtles and hares

birds and bees birds and bees birds and bees birds and bees birds and bees birds and bees

doves and hawks doves and hawks doves and hawks doves and hawks doves and hawks

Associated Wikimedia

WikimediaForPortals

another one to mess with

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An example table
Cell 1 Cell 2
Cell 3 Cell 4

Cell 5

Cell 6 Cell 7 Cell 8
Cell 9 Cell 10 Cell 11 Cell 12
Cell 13
A table in a table
   

Two Wikimedia logos

sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text sample text

further splitting

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I think this is what you asked for. I usually design these by thinking of it as graph paper with the most discrete cell as my grid size. Then I build up, deciding which grid squares to merge into each table cell. In the case below, your most discrete cells are text 5 and 6. Everything else requires a merge of smaller cells. Rossami (talk) 08:40, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

text1
text2 text3
text4 text 5
text 6
text 7