The two rows below should look identical. In both, the spanning cells in columns 2-3 should consume as much width as possible, while column 1 should be tiny. <table border=2 width=100%> <tr> <td>1<td colspan=2>2-3 </tr> <tr> <td>1</td> <td colspan=2 width=100%>2-3</td> </tr> </table>