/*
Don't do it the intuitive way...
*/
<table>
 <tr style="background: url(/images/tr-background.gif) no-repeat 0 0;">
   <td>Row 1</td>
   <td>Row 2</td>
   <td>Row 3</td>
 </tr>
</table>
 
/*
...because it doesn't work in IE6 or Safari, even if you set 
the <td> background element to 'transparent' or 'none'.
But you can still make it happen with just the one image:
*/
 
<table>
 <tr>
   <td style="background: url(/images/tr-background.gif) no-repeat 0 0;">Row 1</td>
   <td style="background: url(/images/tr-background.gif) no-repeat 50% 0;">Row 2</td>
  <td style="background: url(/images/tr-background.gif) no-repeat 100% 0;">Row 3</td>
</tr>
</table>
 
/*
You're just altering the background-position of the image, so that 
what should be on the left goes on the left (at 0), the middle 
part goes to the middle (50% horizontally), and the last part goes 
at the end (100%). Remember that values in the background-position 
element are ordered horizontal, then vertical, unlike the margin 
and padding elements.
 
And, of course, you'll want to separate presentation from content 
by putting the CSS elsewhere and classing the td's.
*/