How do I read the periodic table?
Elements are laid out in order of atomic number, left to right and top to bottom. A row is a period and shares the outermost electron shell; a column is a group and shares the number of valence electrons, which is why elements in a column behave alike. Colour here shows the category, from alkali metals through to noble gases.
What do the parts of each tile mean?
The small number is the atomic number, the count of protons in the nucleus, which is what identifies the element. Below it are the one or two letter symbol and the element's name. Select a tile and the detail panel adds mass, category, phase, melting and boiling points and the electron configuration.
Why are the lanthanides and actinides shown separately?
They belong in periods 6 and 7 between groups 3 and 4, but placing them inline makes the table roughly twice as wide. The standard layout here pulls those two f-block rows out underneath, as printed tables do; the wide layout puts them back in place if you want to see where they really sit.
Does the table work offline?
Yes. All 118 elements ship with the page and nothing is fetched while you browse, so the table, search and element detail keep working with no connection.