<table> is implemented as CALS table (see CALS table spec at www.oasis.org). Capturing these kind of tables must be supported by the SGML editor, so only some hints are given here:
 
CALS tables consist of mainly three parts within <tgroup>: <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot>.
 
Each part is made of <row>s of <entry>s. Each of these elements have attributes to control the layout of the table.
 
<tgroup> also receives a set of <colspec>s having information about the table columns.
 
One of the major problems if CALS tables do not work is, that the amount of <colspec> elements and <entry> does not match the value of the attribute [columns] in <tgroup>.
 
Within <entry> most of the paragraph level elements are allowed.

Note
It is highly recommended to insert <thead>. This creates a table heading which is repeated on each page, if a pagebreak falls into the table.