Using CSS td width absolute, position

Question

Please see this JSFIDDLE

td.rhead { width: 300px; } 

Why doesn't the CSS width work?

<table> <thead> <tr> <td class="rhead">need 300px</td> <td colspan="7">Week #0</td> <td colspan="7">Week #1</td> <!-- etc..--> </tr> <tr> <td class="rhead"></td> <td>S</td><td>M</td><td>T</td><td>W</td><td>T</td><td>F</td><td>S</td> <td>S</td><td>M</td><td>T</td><td>W</td><td>T</td><td>F</td><td>S</td> <!-- etc... --> </tr> <thead> </table> 

Also, what are the effects of position:fixed, absolute etc have on td widths if any? I am looking for a reason more than a fix. I am hoping to understand how it works.

Answer 1

This may not be what you want to hear, but display: table-cell does not respect width and will be collapsed based on the width of the entire table. You can get around this easily just by having a display: block element inside of the table cell itself whose width you specify, e.g

<td><div style="width: 300px;">wide</div></td> 

This shouldn't make much of a difference if the <table> itself is position: fixed or absolute because the position of the cells are all static relative to the table.

http://jsfiddle.net/ExplosionPIlls/Mkq8L/4/

EDIT: I can't take credit, but as the comments say you can just use min-width instead of width on the table cell instead.