I have the following xmlsetup for a table and tablecell in xtable (plus other appropiate definitions): \startxmlsetups xmlcommon:table \startembeddedxtable[background=color,backgroundcolor=\xmlatt{#1}{bgcolor}] .. \startxmlsetups xmlcommon:td \startxcell[backgroundcolor=\xmlatt{#1}{bgcolor},] .. \stopxmlsetups and the following table: <table bgcolor="orange"> <tr> <td> One </td> <td width="8cm"> Two </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="yellow"> <b>Three</b> </td> <td width="8cm"> Four </td> </tr> </table> Then without the yellow on the cell the whole table colors its background orange. But with it only the given cell has yellow background, the others lose their orange. Is this as should be? Or is something wrong? Hans van der Meer