Tables

HoTMetaL provides a convenient table model that can be displayed by Web browsers.

Inserting a table

You can insert a table by clicking on the toolbar button or by choosing the Insert Table... command in the Markup menu.

This gives you a dialog box that lets you specify the number of rows and columns in the table. The [Insert] button in this dialog box will be grayed-out if it is invalid to insert a table at the current insertion point.

All tables in HoTMetaL will be the same width as the document window.

Properties

The Cell Properties... and Row Properties... commands in the Markup menu let you change the appearance of a table. These settings will affect how the table is displayed in a browser, depending on the browser's capabilities.

Vertical alignment

The vertical alignment specifies whether a cell's content is aligned with the top, middle, or bottom of the cell. Vertical alignment can be set for a particular cell or row: a setting for a cell takes precedence over a row setting. To set the vertical alignment:

• Put the insertion point inside the cell or row whose vertical alignment you want to set.
• Choose Cell Properties... or Row Properties... as appropriate.
• Make a choice from the Vertical Alignment option menu.
• Click on the[Ok] or [Apply] button.

Horizontal alignment

Horizontal alignment (justification) specifies how the text in a table cell is aligned with the sides of the cell. Your choices are left, right, centered, and justify (that is, aligned on both sides). Horizontal alignment can be set for a particular cell or row: a setting for a cell takes precedence over a row setting. To set the vertical alignment:

• Put the insertion point inside the cell or row whose horizontal alignment you want to set.
• Choose Cell Properties... or Row Properties... as appropriate.
• Make a choice from the Horizontal Alignment option menu.
• Click on the [Ok] or [Apply] button.

Column/cell width

By default, when a column is displayed in a browser its width will be adjusted to the longest piece of text in any cell in the column. To set the width of a cell explicitly (this sets it for the whole column containing the cell):

• Put the insertion point inside the cell whose width you want to set.
• Choose Cell Properties....
• Enter a value in the Width text entry box.
• Click on the [Apply] button.

The value you should enter for the width depends on what the browser expects. Netscape currently interprets a value that you enter as a number of (screen) pixels. Other browsers may interpret the width value differently, or even ignore it. An alternative is to use cell spanning instead: for example, a cell that spans over two cells will be displayed twice as wide as a normal cell.

If more than one cell in a column has a width setting, the longest one is used.

The width setting does not affect how the table is displayed by HoTMetaL.

Wrapping

By default, the content of a cell will wrap when it is displayed in the browser, that is, it will be displayed over several lines rather than one long line. If you want wrapping turned off for the current cell:

• Put the insertion point inside the cell you want to modify.
• Choose Cell Properties....
• Turn on the NoWrap check box.
• Click on the [Ok] or [Apply] button.

To turn wrapping off for the current row:

• Put the insertion point inside the row you want to modify.
• Choose Row Properties....
• Turn on the NoWrap check box.
• Click on the [Ok] or [Apply] button.

Some browsers may ignore these settings.

Adding and deleting rows and columns

You can add or delete a single row or column using the Edit Table... command.

When you select Edit Table... you will get a palette containing several buttons.

The six buttons along the bottom of the palette carry out the following operations:

• : create a new row above the current row.
• : create a new row below the current row.
• : delete the current row.
• : create a new column to the right of the current column.
• : create a new column to the left of the current column.
• : delete the current column.

If you insert a row or column, it adopts the defaults of the current row or column. You cannot delete a column if it has one or more cells that span an adjoining column; similarly, you cannot delete a row if has one or more cells that span an adjoining row. If you still want to perform the deletion, you will have to contract the spanning cells (see the next section, Spanning table cells).

Spanning table cells

The Edit Table... command allows you to change the spanning of the cell containing the insertion point

Eight icons at the top of the palette extend and contract cells.

Extending cells

Extending a cell is like `knocking out the wall' between cells. The cell-extending icons, in clockwise order from the top, are:

• : extends the top boundary of the cell one cell up.
• : extends the right boundary of the cell one cell to the right.
• : extends the bottom boundary of the cell one cell down.
• : extends the left boundary of the cell one cell to the left.

There are some rules about extending cells:

• The cell being extended into must be empty.
• The boundary that is being removed must be the same length or height as the cell being extended into. For example, a cell that spans one row cannot extend into an adjacent cell that spans three rows.
• You cannot extend vertically into a cell that has already been extended vertically, or extend horizontally into a cell that has already been extended horizontally.
• You should avoid extending every cell in a row up or down. This will collapse the row into the adjacent row so that only one row is visible, even though two rows are actually present in the table markup.

Contracting cells

The cell-contracting icons, in clockwise order from the top, are:

• : pulls the top boundary of the cell one cell down.
• : pulls the right boundary of the cell one cell to the left.
• : pulls the bottom boundary of the cell one cell up.
• : pulls the left boundary of the cell one cell to the right.

General information

This section contains general information and advice on using tables

Table border

The `table border' refers to the lines that form the boundary of each table cell when the file is displayed in a browser. The BORDER attribute of the TABLE element controls the appearance of the border. To modify it, do the following:

• Move the insertion point to the right of the <TABLE> start-tag.
• Choose Edit SGML Attributes... from the Markup menu, or type Ctrl+].
• Select a value for the BORDER attribute and click on [ Apply].

A value for BORDER may be interpreted differently from browser to browser. In particular, the numerical values may not be recognized by some browsers.

Table caption

To give a table a caption:

• Put the insertion point just to the right of the <TABLE> start-tag.
• Choose Insert Element..., or type Ctrl+I.
• Insert a CAPTION element.

Table header

Table cells are represented by the TD element. Cells can be changed to TH (table header) elements by putting the insertion point in the appropriate cells and choosing the Change... command. If you simply wish to bolden the text, we suggest that you insert a B or STRONG element inside the table cell(s) instead of changing the table cell element.

Nested tables

HoTMetaL does not support `nested tables', that is, tables inside tables.

Reformatting tables

Sometimes tables that were not created with HoTMetaL's graphical table editor will not display nicely in HoTMetaL. Here are some things you can try to improve the appearance:

• If the content of a cell is particularly long it may appear cramped because the cell width does not expand. One solution is to extend cells to the left or right to make a wider cell. If this is not convenient (perhaps the adjacent cells already have data in them) you can create a new column adjoining the current column, and then extend the current cell into the new column. This will create a wider cell. You may want to extend all the cells in the current column in this way.
• If you insert an element inside a table cell and all or part of the tag icon is invisible, it may be that you need to use the Styles... command to set the `space above' to 0 for this element.
• Note that tables must be rectangular. Opening a file with a non-rectangular table with HoTMetaL could cause problems. You should try filling in the missing cells and then opening the file again.
• If you can't find any other way of improving the table format, you should consider re-creating the table, this time using HoTMetaL's table-editing commands.