Using Tables
In order to create tables, select Table on the main menu bar, then Insert,
and finally Table. The Insert Table dialog box will appear in which you can
enter the necessary information to create the table that you require. You
can enter the number of rows and columns that you want in your table as well
as the overall width of the table. You can also choose how you want your table
aligned on the page, the size of the borders on the table, and the cell padding
and spacing. Cells are the spaces created where columns and rows intersect.
The table shown below is the result of the selections
made in the dialog box above.
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Note: Do not make your table any wider than
what will fit on the smallest common monitor screen (14"), otherwise
the user may need to use a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen
in order to see the complete width of the page. This can be annoying
and may result in people not using your site as much as you would
like.
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Once your table has been inserted, you can begin to enter text and graphics
in the various cells. Enter text by simply typing inside a cell or copy and
paste text from another file. Insert a graphic by selecting Insert on the
menu bar, then Picture. You can insert a graphic from any file or from Microsoft's
clip art library. When you insert anything into a cell, it will enlarge if
necessary to accommodate the size of the text block or graphic, but the overall
table size will not increase from its original setting. As you can see in
the illustration below, a text block was inserted into the right cell of the
table. As a result, the cell has almost taken over the entire table because
there is nothing in the left cell to prevent the right cell from expanding
horizontally.
As soon as content is inserted into the left cell, as shown below, the right
cell will get smaller horizontally and larger vertically to accommodate the
graphic in the left cell.
There are now some things you can do to improve the appearance of the content
within the table. If you right click anywhere within the table, a shortcut
menu will appear. If you select Table Properties from the menu, you can do
several things. You can change the spacing between cells and the space between
the content and the edge of the cell. If you want the table borders to show
up when your page is displayed in a browser, you can change the border size
from zero to any number. The color and style of the borders can be changed,
as well as the background color of the table, the table width, and many others.
You can also change the properties of individual cells by right clicking
on a cell and selecting Cell Properties from the shortcut menu.
The Table Properties dialog box is shown below with some of the properties
changed for the sample table. See how this has affected the appearance of
the table.
The table shown below is the result of the selections
made in the dialog box above.
Another feature to assist you with tables is the floating tables toolbar.
To show the toolbar, click View on the menu bar, Toolbars, then Tables. The
Tables toolbar includes tools to add columns and rows to your table, delete
columns or row, merged cells, align content within the cells, and many more.
The tables toolbar is shown below.
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Note: Besides the Tables toolbar, there are
floating or dockable toolbars for standard functions (saving a file,
copying and pasting, inserting a picture), formatting functions (changing
font size and style, aligning objects, coloring text, bulleted lists),
DHTML Effects (animate objects, create mouseover pictures), and several
others. To see the other toolbar selections, click View on the top
menu bar and then Toolbars to see the complete list, as shown in the
illustration below.
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