User:Go for it!/table test 1

Doubled (tripled?) border
In your request, you specifically said you needed to retain the double border but didn't say for what purpose. If it's just for looks, the easiest way is to change the border style.

By the way, you might want to check out this reference for other border options.

fillable border
You said "The double border I was after was to be adjustable, and fillable with color." If you're just talking a little bit of adjustment, you could change the border style. Thick can be pretty darned thick, after all. But if you need to take it to extremes you probably want to Catherine did - nesting tables using padding and background. So, let's define everything above as the "guts" of the table and play with borders.

nested tables
You also asked how to insert a table into another cell while retaining the border. That's essentially what I just did. The table above is a one-cell table nested inside another one-cell table. You could make that table as complicated as you need. I recommend against it, though. I prefer the control I get with a single table using colspans and rowspans.

another one to mess with
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further splitting
I think this is what you asked for. I usually design these by thinking of it as graph paper with the most discrete cell as my grid size. Then I build up, deciding which grid squares to merge into each table cell. In the case below, your most discrete cells are text 5 and 6. Everything else requires a merge of smaller cells. Rossami (talk) 08:40, 4 March 2006 (UTC)