Best practices for including tables

A table is a good way to present descriptions of choices, options, and fields that a user might encounter in a task. You can also use tables for reference information, decision support, compatibility matrices, and choices a user has.

Keep tables as simple as possible, and make sure that screen readers can easily parse tables. For more information about making tables accessible in Splunk docs, see Write accessible documentation.

Here are some best practices for creating effective tables:

• Introduce tables with a full sentence and a colon in your writing.
• Don't create a table with only one row.
• You can use tables in a list of task steps, but avoid using lists in a table.
• Avoid merging or splitting table cells.
• Avoid leaving table cells empty. If you need to keep a cell blank, use a nonbreaking space to make a cell appear blank. The HTML character entity for a nonbreaking space is  .
• Capitalize the first letter of every cell entry.
• If the cell contents are complete sentences, include end punctuation.
• If the cell contents are characters, words, or phrases, don't include end punctuation.
• Use parallel sentence construction in cell entries that belong to the same column. For example, start all entries with verbs, or end all entries with punctuation.
• Avoid including links in tables, unless the purpose of the table is to help users find information in the docs.
• Use code samples sparingly in tables.