Tables are a good way to organize data on your web pages in a columnar fashion. Since an HTML web page does not work exactly like a word processor screen, the normal tabs and paragraph indentation of a word processor are not fully available for you to use. Instead a table is an object used to achieve the same or a similar purpose. You can insert tables anywhere in your web pages. Remember that tables require lots of memory resource. Be careful where and how you use them. Place only the number of rows and columns that you really need. Do not create tables where some of the rows or columns are empty. Headers can have different dimensions, captions, vertical and horizontal border lines, and may include text or graphics depending on the program.
To insert a table in your web page, open the page you want to insert the table in. You may also double click on the Home page from the Logical Layout of the Site Manager and open the Home page. Place the cursor anywhere on the page and click on the Insert Table icon on the Insert Object Toolbar. You may also select the Table > Insert Table form the menu.
The Table Properties dialog box is displayed.
Table size
The program enables you to specify size of your table. To specify size of the main body of the table, enter
numbers that you want for the Rows and Columns in the Cells section. Note that tables usually take up lots of computer resource, especially memory. Do not create a table
larger than you need. Each table can be no larger than 50 rows. You can, however, place many tables on the web page.
Table Header and Footer cells
The meaning of a Header and Footer in tables is similar to that of a header and footer you are used to in document processing programs. However, they are not exactly the same. There are some differences.
By definition, a header cell in a table is defined as a cell where text is bold and centered in
a cell. The footer cell is the one where text is bold and left justified in a cell. Another important point about table headers and footers is that you may have as many headers and footers in one table as you like. In fact, a header or a footer does not have to be a complete row of cells. You can even select a single cell in the middle of the table and set it to be a header. Setting
cells to be headers and footers is simply a matter of convenience. You can select
any table cell and manually set the text inside it to be bold and left justified. However, instead of doing this manually
cell by cell, you can select a cell and set it to be a Header or a Footer.
The program enables you to specify which rows in your table are Headers or Footers. The Header rows are always at the topmost part of the table. The Footer rows are the ones at the bottom of the table. Headers and Footers are not a separate set of cells. They are part of the main body of the table, but are designated to be either Headers or Footers.
In the Table Properties dialog box, enter a numbers of rows and columns for your table in the Number of Rows and Number of Columns fields.
To specify which of the top rows of the table are headers, enter the number in the Header Rows field of the Cells section.
To specify which of the bottom rows of the table are footers, enter the number in the Footer Rows field of the Cells section.
The number you enter for the rows of the table should include rows for the following three sections of the table:(1) the header part, (2) the main body of the table, and (3) the footer part.
For example, if you specify a number of rows to be the same as that of the header rows plus the footer rows, the main body part of the table will have zero rows.
Any text that you enter in the Caption and Header parts of the table is centered by default. Header and Footer text is bolded by default. However, you can change these attributes after you enter a text. For example, if you want to justify left the text in a Header, select a header cell and click the Justify Left icon on the Text Format Toolbar.
To change attributes of a table, select the table on
your page, place the mouse pointer on the table and right click. From the popup menu, select
Object Properties to display the Table dialog box.
Table dimensions
You can set measurement units used for measuring width or height of your table to be
Pixels or Percents. The default setting is Auto. This means that once
a visitor opens the page, he cannot change width or height of the table. It is changed automatically by
a browser, based on the amount of text or other objects you insert in the cells.
Resizing a table by dragging table boundaries
You can set dimensions of your table to be resizable and not automatic. This will enable you to drag the borders of the table by dragging them on the web page. To set
dimensions for variable resizing, check the Pixels radio buttons for the Width and Height of the table in the Table dialog box. Now when you insert
your table in the web page, select it to resize its borders. The program places an outline around the table with small square handles.
Using your mouse, drag any of the handles to resize the table.
Borders, cell padding, and cell spacing
You can set table cells borders, padding and spacing.
The Border of a table is the outermost frame, or four bounding sides of the table. You can enter any number in pixels to be a thickness of the border in the Border Size field of the Table dialog box.
The Padding of a table is the extra space added inside each cell. It forces text or objects inserted in the cell to be positioned away from the border of the cell. The more padding you specify for your cells, the farther away will be contents of the cells from the cells' boundaries.
You can specify padding size by entering a number in pixels in the Cell Padding field of the Table dialog box.
To change attributes of a table
inserted in your page, select the table, place the mouse pointer on the table, and right click. From the popup menu, select
Object Properties to display the Table dialog box.
The Cell Spacing of a table is the actual width of the border line surrounding each cell.
If you want the border of each cell to be thick, enter a larger number in the Cell Spacing field of the Sizes section in the Table dialog box.
If you do not want your table borders and padding to be displayed, enter 0 in these fields. The program will display temporary dotted lines instead of actual borders. This will help you change sizes of columns or rows and work with your table. However, a browser does not show the dotted line borders.
Table caption
You can also insert a caption in your table. You can position the caption either on the top of the table or below it, but not both. To insert a caption, check the Create checkbox in the Caption section. Select one of the radio buttons for
a Top or Bottom caption. The caption will be placed at the top or bottom of the table.
Only the cell padding size applies to captions. The same Cell padding you enter in the Sizes section will apply for the caption. Captions do not have visible borders or cell spacing.
To insert a caption in the table, check the Create check box in the Caption section of the dialog box, then check the Top or Bottom radio buttons.
To change attributes of a table, select the table on the page, place the mouse
pointer on the table and right click. From the popup menu, select Object Properties to display the Table dialog box.
Table justification or alignment
You can justify your table horizontally on the page. Due to the special table characteristics as defined by the HTML language or browsers, the normal text
justification icons in the toolbar are not used to justify tables. Instead,
justification or alignment of tables is set inside the Table dialog box.
Select your choices in the Alignment section of the dialog box.
To justify a table, click on one of the Left, Center, or Right radio buttons. You can also set the table to appear in a float mode. This means that a text (not a table) will wrap around the table. If you check the Float checkbox, you can also check your table to be aligned right or left. If you want the table to be aligned left and have a text wrapped around it, then check the Float and the Left check boxes.
Similarly, if you check the Float check box and the Right Align radio button, the table will be aligned to the right side of the screen and the text will be wrapped around the top, left and bottom sides of the table.
When you Left, Center or Right align a table, it does not stay fixed at these locations. It will move according to the
browser's visible screen window. For example: If the browser screen window is made narrower, then a Right Aligned table will not fall out of the screen but will be moved to the left along with all the wrapped
around text.
Moving a Table
You can always select your table and drag it to a new location on the page. As you select the table and start dragging the mouse, the program will display a small square at the edge of the mouse
pointer designating the table move. Note that you can drag the table to any other location on the page where text or object lines
are already inserted. You cannot drag the table beyond the line limits of your web page. If you want to do so,
add more lines or enter spaces first, and then drag the table.
After you drag and drop your table, the table may not be placed exactly where you dropped it. It will be placed as close as possible to the point where you dropped it, yet its final position will be overruled by the justification and alignment options set for the table. You can change these settings from the Table dialog box.
Editing tables
To change text inside the cells of your table, click in the cell and delete or add text. To modify
attributes of a table itself, double click on the table and select Format > Object > Properties menu options. You may also click once on the table to select it,
and then right click on it. From the drop down menu, select Object > Properties.
The Table dialog box is displayed. Change any options you want. There are certain rules you should remember when you change
attributes of a table.
These include:
If there is no caption and you check the caption check box in the dialog box, the caption is added to the table. When you change the number of rows and columns,
cells are added or removed at the right and bottom of the table.
To change attributes of a table, select the table on the page, place the mouse
pointer on the table, and right click. From the popup menu, select Object Properties to display the Table dialog box.
Dragging and changing size of tables and cells
You can change size of cells from inside the Table dialog box. However, there is an easier way. You can simply place the mouse on the cell borders and drag them. If you drag the outermost border of the table,
the table size at the cell being dragged will be changed. To change size of any cell inside the table, place the mouse on the border of the cell you want
to move and drag it.
You can change height and width of table cells. Different columns of the same table can have different widths. However, not all
browsers support individual column sizes. These features are part of HTML 3 specification. If you want to create tables that are also viewed properly on earlier version browsers such as those that support release 2 HTML,
you should keep the same width of columns in your web page.
You can insert text and other objects in table cells. The cell height of a row is automatically adjusted to fit larger sizes of objects you insert. Similarly, when you delete objects from a cell, the cell height of that row is adjusted automatically.
You can use all the text editing and formatting features on any cell except for backgrounds. Cell backgrounds are transparent and have the same background as your entire web page.
Joining Cells, setting individual heights and widths, and setting cell attributes
Once you create and insert a table, you can join cells and change the cell attributes. To do this, you must first click inside
a specific cell that you want to change. Right-click on the table. From the popup menu, select Table > Cell Properties. Or you may select the Table > Cell Properties from the program menu.
The Cell Properties dialog box is displayed.
To make this cell a header cell, check the Header Cell checkbox.
You can join cells that are either vertically or horizontally adjacent to one another.
To join two adjacent cells in a row, you must first place the cursor in the leftmost cell. Right click on the table. From the popup menu, select Table > Cell Properties. Or you may select Table > Cell Properties from the program menu. In the Cell Properties dialog box, enter "1" in the Columnspan field. Click OK. The two cells will be joined. Contents of the first cell will remain whereas contents of the other cell will be deleted.
To join two cells in a column where the cells are one above another, you must first place the cursor in the upper cell. Right click on the table. From the popup menu, select Table > Cell Properties. Or you may select Table > Cell Properties from the program menu. In the Cell Properties dialog box, enter the number 1 in the Rowspan field. Click OK. The two cells will be joined. The contents of the uppermost cell will remain whereas the contents of the other cell will be deleted.
To join more than two cells, follow the same steps as described earlier. Enter an appropriate number for cells you want to join.
Setting different heights and widths for individual rows or columns
Earlier in this section, we described how you can set column width and row
height. These settings are available in the Table dialog box and they apply to all
columns and rows of your table.
If you want to change dimensions of a specific column or row, click and place the cursor inside any cell you want to change. Right click the mouse on the cell and select Table > Cell Properties from the popup menu. Or you may select Table > Cell Properties from the program menu. In the Cell Properties dialog box, enter a new size of a row or column in pixels and click OK.
For this feature to work, you must have table dimensions set to Auto in the Table dialog box. You must do this first before you change
size of each row or column.
Inserting, deleting cells and justifying contents of cells
Once you have placed a table on your page, you can insert more rows or columns, or delete rows or columns.
First click on a cell you want to delete or where you want to insert new cells. Right click
on the cell and from the popup menu, select the Table option and select
an action you want. A row is inserted immediately above the cell your cursor is
in. A column is inserted to the left of the cell the cursor is in.
If you want to insert a column at the right of your table, or a row at the bottom of the table, you must increase the number of columns or rows in the Table properties dialog box.
To justify cell contents, place the cursor in the cell. Right click the mouse on the cell and from the popup menu, select the Table option. Select one of the alignment options.