Plan requirement
| Subscription | Suite Team or higher, Knowledge Professional or higher |
| Access | Agent |
Tables are for comparisons. Used for layout they are unreadable on a phone and meaningless to a screen reader.
Insert one
- In the editor, click Article components and select Table.
- Use the table's own menu to add or remove rows and columns and to mark the header row.
- Fill it in.
- Check it on a narrow screen.
The header row is not decoration. It is what a screen reader announces before each cell, so without it a table is a grid of numbers with no labels for anyone not looking at it.
When a table is right
When a reader compares across a dimension: plans against features, statuses against meanings, options against when to use them.
The test is whether somebody reads across a row. If they only read down one column, that is a list.
When it is not
- For layout. Putting text beside an image. It breaks on phones and reads as gibberish aloud.
- For a list of things. A single-column table is a list with extra lines.
- For steps. Numbered lists exist for that.
Keep it narrow
Three columns fit on a phone. Six do not, and a table that scrolls sideways is one nobody reads properly.
Where you need six columns, ask whether two tables or a list of short sections would serve the reader better.
Use a header row
Marked as a header, not just bold. That is what tells a screen reader which column a cell belongs to, and without it the whole table is a stream of unrelated values.
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