[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Side Note: But I've had trouble with <caption> across devices in the past, especially trying to move to top/bottom using CSS's caption-side. See my posts in:

• 2021: "Formatting tables best practices"

Personally, I still use an external <div> and/or <p>:

<p class="tabletitle"></p>

<table></table>

<div class="caption">
     <p class="caption"></p>
</div>

(If more is needed, you could wrap the entire title+table+caption in an extra <div> similar to a <figure>.)

This:

• allows me to place it exactly where it's needed
• + it won't break across devices.

Yes, it doesn't get some of those Accessibility goodies with full HTML markup, but it works across everything...

- - -



You don't have to use <br/>.

You can use all the fancy markup you want inside of a <caption>... <p>, <span>, <i>/<em>, whatever.

It's the same as a <td> or <th>. You can use those tags bare, or you could stick extra markup inside those cells...



<caption> is a confusing/poor name for it now.

In HTML5, it seems like <caption> is intended to be used only as a "Title" of the table.

Then HTML5 promotes using <figure> + <figcaption> for an actual caption (or other info).

For example:

<figure>
  <table>
	<caption>LSAT-560467-S</caption>
	
	[... Rest of table here...]
  </table>
  
  <figcaption>
	<p class="caption">* An actual caption with extra info goes here.</p>
  </figcaption>
</figure>

- - -

Side Note #1: Similar to me avoiding <caption>, I wouldn't be using much <figcaption> either...

See my post in:

• 2020: "Remove empty space at the bottom of page before figure."

Older devices wouldn't be able to render the markup well, so you might get odd bugs.

Well, I don't use <br/> in a caption because I'd never use caption or figcaption either. I'd use div and p, if indeed I had to use a table at all. Fortunately I'm not involved with other than novels which would very rarely need a table.