<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<style>
TD
{
        border: 2px solid;
}
</style>
<script>
function longTD()
{
        var td = document.getElementById("td1");
        td.style.width = "60px";
}

function shortTD()
{
        var td = document.getElementById("td1");
        td.style.width = "20px";
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form>
<input style="display:block;" type="button" onclick="longTD();" value="[Step 1] Set cell width to 60px (nothing seen)">
<input style="display:block;" type="button" onclick="shortTD();" value="[Step 2] Set cell width to 20px (garbage seen)">
</form>
<table>
        <tr><td id="td1">1</td><td>2</td></tr>
        <tr><td id="td2">2</td><td>2</td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>