Table Widget SUCKS!

**Dijenga** · 16 June 2016, 01:12 AM

How can one insert a legitimate table into Xara ... it isn't a "I would like" but rather an non negotiable NECESSITY for displaying a sheet of items and prices as well as dimensions etc.

Went through the Xara help files, NOTHING. Tried searching for "Excel" and it thought I meant Excellent ... no tables when needed is terrible, and the table widget is so archaic that it is unusable for my purposes!

Tried searching for tables here, but nothing relating to what I need after going through the first 10 or 12 threads except something about a table straining under the weight of a plate of food ...

Gotta have it so how? See no way to just create a table from scratch and the widget is absolutely useless as it cannot be customized --- i.e. all column widths are fixed and equal.

**Acorn** · 16 June 2016, 06:26 AM

There is an uninspired Copy & Paste from Excel into Xara.

I feel this Thread is going to grow.

Acorn

**Dijenga** · 16 June 2016, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Acorn

There is an uninspired Copy & Paste from Excel into Xara.

I feel this Thread is going to grow.

Acorn

I've read (much of, but certainly not all of) the included documentation, even searched for excel in the included "help" ... no mention at all that I found or can recall.

Doubt the thread will grow. Few folks use tables anymore, but it's just something I need.

I'll try a "copy and paste" from excel.

EDIT:

No problem pasting into page from Excel ... however, it isn't visible except in edit view. Preview? Blank page is all I get.

**Christine Farrelly** · 16 June 2016, 01:42 PM

Check which layer it is pasted into.

**Dijenga** · 16 June 2016, 02:07 PM

Got it to be viewable ... not sure what happened the first time, but it is "slightly" better than what I started with. Thanks ...

I created a table in ******* HTML Editor, but the formatting was even worse than the widget. I have two customers who keep price lists on their sites and use tables, so I'm going to have to come up with a better solution for the long run.

I'll contact Xara support and mention the lack of tables in their editor.

Thanks.

**gwpriester** · 16 June 2016, 03:20 PM

I love it when members wax poetic.

**Acorn** · 16 June 2016, 05:52 PM

OK then.

Gary has used Columned Text Boxes in the past.

Egg swears by Google Sheets.

I have embedded HTML tables into placeholders from on-line HTML editors.

I have built a demo around dataTables: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...943#post526943.

A means to create your own tables in Xara, but does not have an import: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...Dynamic-Tables.

Acorn

**Dijenga** · 16 June 2016, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by gwpriester

I love it when members wax poetic.

I've gotta learn not to use the name of that other software company ... unless I do it Cre a tive ly

So**Think Html Editor.

Did a pure HTML table, put a rectangle on the Xara page being edited and made it a placeholder, inserted the table code ONLY into the body ... and it looked like what the neighbor's dog left by my Jeep last week ... so I 86'd it.

Excel import will have to do for the time being.

**vectorspace** · 19 June 2016, 03:00 PM

From all the posts and need I have seen around tables, I wonder why Xara has not listened to their customers. Is it a technical thing or "religious" thing?

**Dijenga** · 19 June 2016, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by vectorspace

From all the posts and need I have seen around tables, I wonder why Xara has not listened to their customers. Is it a technical thing or "religious" thing?

... maybe a "Xen" thing?

I find it amazing that the need is not addressed by the authors/publishers of this software.

I know lots of folks here also use Xara's DTP software, does it not have the ability to do tables either?