A Contender for the new Xara Table Tool

[Acorn]

No one seems to be showing any keenness for the new Xara Table Tool released to XDA Plus v22.1.
It has its issues that Xara will work through.

I would rate it 3/5 with it getting no better than 4/5 as its interface and other aspects constrain what I have been doing without it.

I developed an approach over nine years ago using boxes stretched by text and the use of Push.
This created a lot of Names and with the development of Text Inside Text Panels, this aspect has disappeared.

My approach will never be as slick as the Xara Table Tool but I feel its main strength comes from the use of well-known user actions, without having to learn another set that do not quite fit into the original Xara workflows.

My Method

• Create any coloured box with a border.
• Switch to the Text Tool and click in the box and pick Fixed inside. I prefer this as the font size is constant and forces the box to adjust to contain the text. This requires manual adjustment if row cell greatly differ. Do note, you are in control.
  
  • You can also pick Auto-fit inside if you need a table with a fixed row height.
  
  
• Change the Text Font, Colour, Alignment and Size.
• You have your first Cell.

• Use the Smart Duplication (SD) to create a numberof Cells across the page.
  
  • These Cells can be of any width.
  • Use SD to adjust the Cell Padding.
  
  
• If you do not have SD, Clone and roughly space and pad equally with the Object Alignment dialog.
• Group these Cells.
• You have your first Row.

• Use the default 5px Push setting for the Row.
• Create your Table by Cloning the first Row repeatedly.

• Use the Text Tool to add content.
  
  • Rows will Push down and never overlap.
  
  
• Select any Row and Open Group (double-click works).
  
  • You are now in Edit inside mode and the grouping is suspended.
    
    • To reset the Cells to the same height, I select all bar the tallest and drag top & bottom to snap so all Cells have the same height.
    • Ctrl+S saves these Row changes and returns to the main design with Row positions all taken care of.

Tweaks

• You have Table and Row actions in the main design.
  
  • Remove Push temporarily while moving a Row to another position - this is a manual task.
  • You can add a background object behind the Table.
  
  
• You have Cell actions at the Edit inside level.
  
  • Add a Transparent shape to force larger Padding.
  • You could clone the entire Row and set the Padding to be much larger.
  • You can change each Cell separately as I have tried to show in my demo file: Table Contender.xar

Swapping Columns is fairly tricky.
Can you guess the method?

Try making your own.

Do come back and ask you own questions.

How do I add a Header Row?
How can I easily swap adjacent Rows?
Can I include a Serial Column?
How do I merge Cells vertically?

Acorn

[gwpriester]

I think the problem is that not that many people use tables and hence not that much interest. Business users would have more use for tables and I am not sure how many of them visit this site.

[Acorn]

I think the problem is that not that many people use tables and hence not that much interest. Business users would have more use for tables and I am not sure how many of them visit this site.

Gary, a Calendar is a table structure as is a Price List as is Sudoku. Tables maintain a presentational layout more readily than random text areas.

Some TG sites could not exist otherwise. Some actually need tables (but were afraid to ask).

Acorn

[gwpriester]

NetObjects Fusion, my first wysiwyg web design software created tables to position content on the page. I get what you are saying.

[Peter Prewett]

I use tables for events in the 'Mens Shed so that people can enter their names, each one is different.

I did find in the new tables that can select no background/transparent to put a picture behind does not work.

[Acorn]

I use tables for events in the 'Mens Shed so that people can enter their names, each one is different.
I did find in the new tables that can select no background/transparent to put a picture behind does not work.

Peter, not quite sure what you are saying with 'each one is different'.

To put a picture behind you have to set the Table background Colour to None and adding some Padding.
Without Padding, you then have to set the Cell(s) background colour also to None.
Then you place your image behind the Xara table.

In my approach there is no Table background so no constraint, you can add anything under mine - gradient fills & transparencies, images, blobs, ...

Acorn