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Creating Tables

Organize Tabular Information
SBT provides a table function that is conceptually similar to tables in Word, but the manipulation is somewhat more constrained. Tabular information copied from Word, Excel and many other sources generally paste nicely into the SBT editing area. You may find it easier to create your tables in another application and copy/paste them into your SBT-based page. It generally is easier to do all the formatting in the other application before copying and pasting into the SBT edit space. Making other than simple changes in SBT is more difficult and may require editing HTML tags.


Add a Table
To add a table using SBT's table function:

  1. Position your cursor where you want the table.

  2. Click the Insert Table icon in the toolbar.

  3. Change values in the Table dialog as follows…


    • Rows: and Columns: determine the table structure.

    • Padding: controls the space between text and the cell borders. The default is 1 pixel.

    • Spacing: value controls the space between cell borders. The default is 1 pixel.

    • BG Color: allows you to select a background color for the table.

    • Border: determines the weight of the table's outside border —higher numbers give heavier borders: use 0 for no border and 9 for the heaviest border. Changing border color requires HTML coding.

    • Width: determines width of the table in pixels (an absolute number, such as 780) or percentage (such as 100%). Percentage generally is the better way to specify width.

    • Height: determines the overall minimum height of the table in pixels. Table content determines the actual height, overriding a too-small specification.

    • Align: determines how the table will be placed on the page if the width is less than 100%. Options are Left, Center or Right.

    • Style: is beyond the scope of this discussion. It allows you to include HTML table parameters.

  4. Click OK.

Creating Tables Example

All options except Rows: and Columns: may be modified after you create the table. Rows and columns may be added and/or deleted using the table icons in the toolbar, as described in the following topic, Edit a Table .

SBT creates the table with columns of equal width. When you start typing content in the first cell you may be surprised at what happens: SBT increases the column to a width greater than you expect. Don't be concerned; as you type content in remaining cells, SBT dynamically balances the column widths. The following topic explains how you may override SBT's actions.


Edit a Table
Editing table content is a WYSIWYG function… just type away. Editing table attributes involves use of SBT table tools.

If you specified Border: 0 , it may be helpful to have borders visible (click  in the lower left corner of the SBT window— Step Seven in Editing Page Content).

For the following actions, start by hovering your mouse pointer over any table border. When the pointer changes to Crosshairs …

  • To modify the table creation attributes:
    1. Right-click to open the dialog.
    2. Modify parameters as described in Add a Table on page 11.

  • To manually stretch/shrink the table:
    1. Left-click to select the table.
    2. Click a sizing handle (side, top, bottom or corner) and drag to resize.

  • To specify horizontal alignment:
    1. Left-click to select the table.
    2. Click an alignment icon in the toolbar    for left, center or right alignment.

To manipulate the number of columns, rows and/or cells, use the insertion/deletion tools      . It may take some experimentation to achieve the result you want. Fortunately, Ctrl+Z (or clicking Undo ) reverses an action you try.

Occasionally it may take more than one undo action to completely undo a table change — it seems SBT makes some changes in a series of steps, each requiring an undo action.


Manipulate Cells

  • To split a cell into two cells:
    1. Position your cursor in the cell.
    2. Click the Split Cell icon Split Cell Icon in the toolbar.

  • To merge two or more horizontally adjacent cells into one cell:
    1. Left-click and drag or use Shift + Shift Right Example or Shift + Shift Left Example to select the cells.
    2. Click the Merge Cells icon  in the toolbar.

You will achieve more predictable results if the cells to be merged contain at least one character. Note that SBT does not allow merging cells vertically.

  • To split a cell into two cells:
    1. Position your cursor in the cell.
    2. Click the Split Cell icon Split Cell Icon in the toolbar.
  • To set cell attributes explicitly:
    1. Position your cursor anywhere in the cell.
    2. Click the Cell Properties icon  in the toolbar.
    3. Modify cell attributes…

      • Selecting Do not wrap contents forces the cell content to be on one line. This attribute overrides table and cell width attributes. A long text string, with Do not wrap contents specified, can make a table extend beyond a screen's width.

      • Width: and Height: specifies the minimum width/height of the cell. The values may be specified in pixels (an absolute number such as 20 ) or percentage (such as 20% ). In either case, cell content may override your width/height settings.

      • Hint: When specifying width/height values, consider including the column width only in the top cell of the column and the row height only in the leftmost cell of the row. This way, you have just one cell to modify for each column/row if you decide to resize the columns/rows.

      • BG Color: applies a background color to the cell, overriding the table background for the cell.

      • Border color: applies a color to the one-pixel border around the cell.

      • Align: controls horizontal text alignment. You may achieve the same results without opening this dialog, using the alignment icons in the toolbar .

      • Vert Align: controls the vertical text alignment.

      • Style: is beyond the scope of this discussion. It allows you to include HTML table parameters.

    4. Click OK.

Create a Table Example

Many cell attributes are not absolute—they interact with other cell and table attributes. The best way to determine the outcome is through experimentation.

 

 

 

 

 

Maintained by: OIT

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