The Second Row is Displayed as the Third Column in the First Row

[Natalie Kopple]

I am creating a table with only two columns (see the code below). Each column has its own heading, which is displayed well. Below the heading, I created two rows for data entry. The second data row somehow is displayed as the third column in the first data row. I cannot figure out the problem and need help. Thank you.

        <table align="center" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="5" border="1" width="100%">
            <tr>
            	<th style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; background: #084B8A; color: white; display: inline;" align="left" width="30%">Release Information</th>
            	<th style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; background: #084B8A; color: white; display: inline;" align="center" width="70%">Description</th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;" align="left" valign="top" width="30%" rowspan="8">Release Item</td>
                <td width="70%" rowspan="8"><br/></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;" align="left" valign="top" width="30%" rowspan="22" nowrap>Description of the Release</td>
                <td width="70%" rowspan="22"><br/></td>
            </tr>
        </table>

[Bear Bibeault]

Step 1: Improve the HTML and make it much more readable (and therefore easier to see errors) by eliminating the repeated style attributes. Move the style definitions out to CSS rules.

Step 2: What's with the rowspan attributes?