Thread:AlthaBlade/@comment-4674838-20121024023956/@comment-4674838-20121028035007

The exclamation mark makes a header cell. Basically, it's just like a normal cell, except that the text is bold and centered automatically. If you replace the exclamation mark with a pipe character: | it will make it a normal cell instead of a header cell.

Table with exclamation mark:

Table after replacing the exclamation mark with a pipe: |

'colspan' means "columns span" - you can use it to make a single cell span multiple columns. For example, if you have a table that has 2 columns, you might want the header to stretch across the top of both columns. That's what colspan is for :)