Tables

Tables are indispensable tools when it comes to formatting text and objects in a much more structured way while maintaining a high degree of flexibility. You can do wonderful things with tables. Create various forms. Build pretty looking websites without the need of learning any HTML code.

do-Organizer Scribe offers quite advanced table editing options. I will try to steer away from advanced options as much as I can. After all, I don't want to hit you with a ton of bricks, before you even start breathing.

Let's take it a step at a time by inserting a simple table. I can insert a table using the menu "Table/Insert Table" or simply clicking on shortcut icon "Insert Table"

placed on the insert tool-bar. By default the insert tool-bar is situated at the bottom of the canvas area. Remember, I call the area where you enter text and objects as the "Canvas"

From the "Insert Table" dialog I have accepted the default definition and ended up with the table above. However, when inserting tables, you can specify some of the table properties right at the source, such as Number of columns and rows, and table layout.

The default table layout is "Size table to fit window" this means my table above will re-size itself to fit the window as and when I resize my working area (Canvas). If you choose "Auto-size" your table will automatically resize when you change various cell or table properties. For instance, if I change the right-hand side cells of my table, the table will resize itself to accommodate the newly assigned cell sizes. I don't think "Size table manually" requires any explanations as the name says it all.

I am going to select the whole table above and copy it with standard ctrl+c and paste ctrl+v below to do some work on it, adding new cells, changing borders and so on. Of course to be able to copy, first I need to select it. I move my cursor to the left of the table (outside the table) and moving my cursor over while holding the left mouse button down. Just like selecting a line or paragraph of text. I didn't have to copy/paste the table below. I could have simply inserted a re sizing 4 rows, 2 column table using the insert table command or shortcut.

I have merged 2 cells and filled then with color. To Merge (join) two neighboring cells, select the cells and click on the shortcut icon "Merge Cells" situated on the table format tool-bar.

You can merge cells horizontally as well as vertically.	Split cells any way you like again using the shortcut "Split Cells" situated on the table format tool-bar.	Specify on the "Split" dialog window the quantity of split rows and columns
	Split and Merge cells opens a whole new world of designing, various forms and layouts you need.

I have inserted 2 more additional rows of cells. I placed the cursor in the last cell and clicked on the shortcut icon "Insert Row Below"

situated on the table format tool-bar. If I wanted to have my new cells inserted at the top then I would have placed my cursor in one of the cells at the very top of the table. Please notice; the table format tool-bar and table properties panel are only active when your cursor is in a table cell. (You can show/hide table properties panel on the left, using the splitter bar handle (little dotted rectangle)).


	Play with table border width, spacing, color fill to achieve different looks	Play with cell, borders width, spacing, coloring and padding to achieve different looks

Delete individual borders using table properties panel tools		Change color of individual cell borders. To change multiple cell border colors select them first.

Now I want to put the table to its real use. I need to place text and images on this page in a way that would not be possible with standard text formatting options. However, I can do it using a table easily. OK, lets start by inserting a new table with 2 column by 1 row as a base.

John Lennon

First

After inserting this table I got rid of some of the table and cell borders to merge with the actual page better. I used cell background color fills for emphasizing certain areas.

I set vertical and horizontal cell spacing to 2 pixels and used 4 pixels for cell padding.

History

His Work

Fun Club

The images I inserted using the "Insert Picture" shortcut icon placed on the Insert tool-bar. By default it's on the bottom of the Canvas area.

Experiment and explore the table properties, including "Advanced Properties".

This could be the start of a simple quickly produced web page. After this all that remains is to add other pages and link them together.

Let me explain how I constructed this table. Well a bit more than table as I also have used paragraph background color options for "MY GRAND TITLE" and horizontal divider lines.

For my title, I placed the cursor on my title then I launched the "Paragraph borders and Background" dialog. I clicked on the Background tab and selected a purplish color. I set background padding to 4 pixels for all sides so that my title text has a bit of a margin from the edges. True, I could have inserted a table with 1 column and 1 row, without any table cell borders or with same color cell borders. However, I wanted to show you an alternative and more efficient way to achieve a certain task.

Before the first table under the title, I have inserted a thick horizontal line and changed its color to purplish (to change horizontal line color, place your cursor on the horizontal line and right-click then choose the menu "Properties") Next I needed to build the main body area. I inserted a table with 1 row and 2 columns. In the left column I have inserted another table with 3 rows and 1 column for my menu layout. Use "Table Properties" to adjust the table and cell borders, fill colors, cell spacing, padding and background fills.

I could insert a footnote or copyright notice here...

TABLE
Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4
	Apply a background image to a cell
Align to Top	Align to Middle	Align to Bottom	Insert image. You can not insert .ico (icon) files in a cell
	Apply background color as well as an image. Images should be semi transparent to show the color in the background		Transparent cells make the background show through

Little point to keep in mind: Inserting images in a cell and filling a cell with an image based background are two different operations with different results.

To fill above cell with color and semi transparent image, first I filled the cell with a color then I opened Advanced table properties dialog window using "Advanced Properties" button on Table Properties tools panel. Then I selected "Cells" tab, clicked on "Picture" button

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