Why? Generally, it is a good idea to blend table colour/shading style with the other web background/colour settings; cf TableFormatOnTwikiOrg. To do so, give up <table> markup altogether, but simply use the | twiki | table | syntax |.

The diff for CVS:lib/TWiki.pm

***************
*** 1543,1560 ****
      my %form = $meta->findOne( "FORM" );
      if( %form ) {
          my $name = $form{"name"};
!         $metaText = "<p />\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n   <tr>";
!         $metaText .= "<th colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#99CCCC\"> $name </th></tr>\n";

          my @fields = $meta->find( "FIELD" );
          foreach my $field ( @fields ) {
              my $title = $field->{"title"};
              my $value = $field->{"value"};
!             $metaText .= "<tr><th bgcolor=\"#99CCCC\" align=\"right\"> $title:</th><td align=\"left\"> $value </td></tr>\n";
          }

-         $metaText .= "</table>\n";
-
          $metaText = getRenderedVersion( $metaText, $web );
      }

--- 1579,1595 ----
      my %form = $meta->findOne( "FORM" );
      if( %form ) {
          my $name = $form{"name"};
!         $metaText = "\n|*$name: $topic*||\n";

          my @fields = $meta->find( "FIELD" );
          foreach my $field ( @fields ) {
              my $title = $field->{"title"};
              my $value = $field->{"value"};
!           $value =~ s/\n/<br>/g;      # undo 
 expansion
!             $metaText .= "|  $title:|$value  |\n"
!               if ($value);
          }

          $metaText = getRenderedVersion( $metaText, $web );
      }

Thanks Peter for the patch. I commited the CVS:lib/TWiki.pm changes into TWikiAlphaRelease and TWiki.org with some small changes:

***************
*** 115,121 ****

  # ===========================
  # TWiki version:
! $wikiversion      = "10 Apr 2003";

  # ===========================
  # Key Global variables, required for writeDebug
--- 115,121 ----

  # ===========================
  # TWiki version:
! $wikiversion      = "13 May 2003";

  # ===========================
  # Key Global variables, required for writeDebug
***************
*** 2121,2138 ****
      my %form = $meta->findOne( "FORM" );
      if( %form ) {
          my $name = $form{"name"};
!         $metaText = "<p />\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n   <tr>";
!         $metaText .= "<th colspan=\"2\" align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#99CCCC\"> $name </th></tr>\n";

          my @fields = $meta->find( "FIELD" );
          foreach my $field ( @fields ) {
              my $title = $field->{"title"};
              my $value = $field->{"value"};
!             $metaText .= "<tr><th bgcolor=\"#99CCCC\" align=\"right\"> $title:</th><td align=\"left\"> $value </td></tr>\n";
          }

-         $metaText .= "</table>\n";
-
          $metaText = getRenderedVersion( $metaText, $web );
      }

--- 2121,2136 ----
      my %form = $meta->findOne( "FORM" );
      if( %form ) {
          my $name = $form{"name"};
!         $metaText = "\n|*[[$name]]*||\n";

          my @fields = $meta->find( "FIELD" );
          foreach my $field ( @fields ) {
              my $title = $field->{"title"};
              my $value = $field->{"value"};
!             $value =~ s/\n/<br \/>/g;      # undo expansion
!             $metaText .= "|  $title:|$value  |\n";
          }

          $metaText = getRenderedVersion( $metaText, $web );
      }

A similar change is pending for the form in edit mode.

BTW, the link color in table headings of TableFormatOnTwikiOrg needs to be fixed. The correct way is to add a new parameter for that to the TablePlugin.

-- PeterThoeny - 13 May 2003