prompter: How to left align items in a HTML table

assistant: To left align items in an HTML table, you can use the "text-align" property in CSS and set it to "left" for the table cells or columns that you want to align to the left. Here's an example:

```
<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Header 1</th>
    <th>Header 2</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Left-aligned text</td>
    <td>Default-aligned text</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Another left-aligned text</td>
    <td>Default-aligned text</td>
  </tr>
</table>
```

In this example, the "style" attribute is used to set the "text-align" property to "left" for the first column of the table. This will left align the text within that column, while the second column will remain aligned to the default (which is left-aligned for text in LTR languages like English).

You can also apply the "text-align: left;" style to the entire column by adding it to the CSS selector for the table cells in that column. For example:

```
<style>
  td:first-child {
    text-align: left;
  }
</style>

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Header 1</th>
    <th>Header 2</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Left-aligned text</td>
    <td>Default-aligned text</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Another left-aligned text</td>
    <td>Default-aligned text</td>
  </tr>
</table>
```

In this example, the "td:first-child" selector targets the first column of the table and applies the "text-align: left;" style to all cells in that column.

prompter: How do I center items in the table?

assistant: You can left-align items in a HTML table by setting the `text-align` property to `left` for `<th>` or `<td>` elements. Here's an example:

```html
<style>
  th {
    text-align: left;
  }
</style>
<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Firstname</th>
    <th>Lastname</th>
    <th>Savings</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Peter</td>
    <td>Griffin</td>
    <td>$100</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Lois</td>
    <td>Griffin</td>
    <td>$150</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Joe</td>
    <td>Swanson</td>
    <td>$300</td>
  </tr>
</table>

```
Is there anything else you would like to know?

prompter: adequate response to the question

assistant: You should not be trying to align items in HTML but in CSS instead. 

To left justify, you can use the below CSS rule on your items in your table.

```css
text-align: left.
```

prompter: I'm not allowed to make a separate CSS file. How would I include this CSS rule in my HTML?

assistant: You can use the ```<style>``` element in html in the header to include CSS. 

Here is an example, replace the placeholders as needed.
```html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <style>
               placeholder-table-element {text-align: left}
        </style>
    </head>
<body>
    <table>
    placeholder table
    </table>
</body>
</html>
```

prompter: Please explain what placeholder-table-element is and why you included it in that code.

assistant: To left align items in an HTML table, you can use the "text-align" property in CSS. Here is an example code snippet that shows how to left align the content of all table cells without creating a separate CSS file:

```html
<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Header 1</th>
    <th>Header 2</th>
    <th>Header 3</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Item 1</td>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Item 2</td>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Item 3</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Item 4</td>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Item 5</td>
    <td style="text-align: left;">Item 6</td>
  </tr>
</table>
```
In this example, the "text-align" property is set to "left" for all table cells using the "style" attribute. This will left align the content of each cell. You can also define the "text-align" property in an external CSS file or in a style block within the HTML document.

prompter: How might I include the text-align property in a style block within the HTML document?

assistant: You can include the CSS style rules directly in the HTML file, by using the "style" tag within the "head" section of the HTML document.

Here's an example:
``` 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
    /* Your CSS styles go here */
    h1 {
      color: red;
      text-align: center;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <!-- Your HTML content goes here -->
  <h1>This is a heading</h1>
</body>
</html>
``` 
In this example, the CSS styles are defined within the "style" tag, and apply to the rest of the HTML document. The h1 selector sets the text color to red and centers the text.

Note that this method of including CSS styles in an HTML document is not recommended for large projects, as it can make the HTML code difficult to maintain. It is generally best to keep your CSS styles in a separate file, and link to it from the HTML document.