table tr and margins

[AlanHK]

I have some text in a table and I want each to outdent.
I do this all the time with,e.g. TOC:

.toc {
margin-left: 1em;
text-indent:-1em;}

But when I try it with td, the indent is shown, but margins have no effect.

td, p {font-size:.8em;
vertical-align: top;
text-align: left;
margin-left: 1em;
text-indent:-1em;
} 

<table><tbody><tr>
<td>Edward, Prince of Wales </td>
<td>John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln </td>
<td>Edward, Earl of Warwick </td>
<td>John of Gloucester </td>
</tr></tbody> </table>

- text in <p> tags does express the margins.
the <td> shows al the formatting except margins.

Even if I do

td { margin: 4em;}

there is zero effect

So, margins just don't work in tables? Yet I see lots of example code here using margins in tr CSS.

================================================
Postscript:


OK, so I tried putting pars inside each td.:

td {font-size:.8em;
vertical-align: top;
text-align: left;
} 

.out {margin-left: 1em;
text-indent:-1em;
}


<td><p class="out">
          Edward, Prince of Wales
        </p></td>

Now each cell does wrap as intended.

Is there an authoritative reference to what CSS works in tables in epubs, and what does not?
Coding by trial and error is exhausting.

[Turtle91]

Personally I dislike having <p>s inside of <td>s....it just grates my nerves...lol

Have you tried using the padding css instead of margin?

td {padding-left:2em; text-indent:-1.5em}

<tr><td>This would be a hanging indent, or an outdent</td></tr>

[GrannyGrump]

I second Dion’s suggestion for padding. I have used this method frequently, and it works -In Sony TS2, ADE for PC, and Calibre reader (which is QTweb based, if I understand correctly).

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

I second Dion’s suggestion for padding. I have used this method frequently, and it works -In Sony TS2, ADE for PC, and Calibre reader (which is QTweb based, if I understand correctly).

+1, we use padding as well.

Hitch

[RbnJrg]

Originally Posted by AlanHK

Even if I do

td { margin: 4em;}

there is zero effect

So, margins just don't work in tables?

Of course, you can't change the left/right (or top/bottom) margin of a cell because otherwise you would be displacing THE CELL to left or right (and you are in table). What you can do is to set the margin to the contain of the cell; for that reason works what you enclosed between <p> tags. In this last case, you are displacing the "box" inside the cell and not the cell.

[AlanHK]

Originally Posted by RbnJrg

Of course, you can't change the left/right (or top/bottom) margin of a cell because otherwise you would be displacing THE CELL to left or right.

Thanks. Nice to have a rational reason and not just "it works/doesn't work".

So margins are meaningless; padding it is.