WD7 Premium - Tabular Data

[TManic]

Hi - does this new version support the inclusion of tabular data from other sources.
For example can I cut & paste a table of data from an Excel table into a page and then format the table within WD7.

Thank you
Tmanic

[gwpriester]

I am not sure. I know this works wit Designer.

There is only one way to find out Try it. You can't break anything.

[covoxer]

does this new version support the inclusion of tabular data from other sources

No.

[TManic]

Thank you John - that was short and to the point! (Thanks also Gary)
I am a little surprised that these graphical web programs all seem to lack tabular data support. They appear great for anyone wanting smart graphics but not a lot of use for for web designers wanting to display data.
Since it is possible to create many of the effects in other Xara products why introduce a Web Design program which lacks the features which have been discussed many times in these forums.
Disappointed - no point in upgrading.
TM

[pauland]

Disappointed - no point in upgrading.
TM

There are loads of reasons to upgrade and the lack of automatic tabular data import is hardly a showstopper that can't be worked around . Ease of incorporating lots of tabular data is not exactly high on most designers wishlist, even though it may be useful to you.

[mikehihn]

Simple. Do a screen capture (or save as html) and then use a space holder to paste the html or image file.

I would NEVER use Xara for tables, as long as I have both Excel and Microsoft Expression. HTML tables are better and can match your colors. If you don't have an html editor then there are plenty of free ones.

You should still upgrade. I've been writing html since 1995 and xara is just a lot faster and easier. (Plus, I'm a genuine schmootz on graphics). My view -- Xara is still the best buy in the universe, even if it's faster to create and import a few things. Geez, 49 bucks :-)

None of this applies to folks who have only Xara (like most of my own clients!) For YOU, it's probably easier to draw those little Xara boxes for a table than to learn HTML. But you do have the option.

[gwpriester]

This is not to say that you cannot create tables. It just takes a little ingenuity. Ms. Guest covers how in her Guest Tutorial Xtreme Tables. While this was written for Xara Xtreme (the products change quickly), it will work in Web Designer 7 too. You just have to learn to think outside the table.

[TManic]

Hi Folks

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've taken them on-board and will have a look at them. If its easily do-able OK otherwise back to Dreamweaver.

[stlewis]

Hi

Another way of doing things if you are PHP/MySQL literate, is to create a MySQL table; you can either store the HTML for the table in a single field, or break things up into one table record per row or even separate fields per cell. You create list, add, view, edit and delete pages in an admin area.

Then on the page where you display the table add placeholders for the PHP to retrieve the data and prepare the table.

This sounds like overkill for one table but may be worth doing if you need some CMS (Content Management System) functionality.

I am, a bit reluctantly , coming round to the view that the Xara way of doing things is rather good for upto medium-sized sites; I am getting very bored battling with CSS layouts and the Xara Way means you can spend the time getting a nice design which has much more of a wow factor.

[StevenWWinters]

does this new version support the inclusion of tabular data from other sources.

As discussed, sadly no. Not everyone needs this, but it is a common request, and when you need it, you need it. While there are workarounds, I think that eventually Xara will have to provide a more intuitive native means of handling tabular data. And while not ideal and rather un-Xara-like, they could even go the dialog box route as they have for the navigation bar menu creation.

In the mean time, add your voice here.