Creating and Editing Tables in PageMill 2.0.
Creating Tables
Choose one of the following ways to create a table. Make sure that PageMill is in edit mode.
- Click the Insert Table button on the toolbar. You can have as many as 99 rows and columns.
- Position the cursor on the Insert Table icon and drag out how many rows and columns you desire. This creates up to a 10x10 table.
- From Microsoft Excel, copy the rows and columns you desire and Edit, Paste them into a PageMill web page. This method creates a new table and cannot be used to paste inside an existing table.
Selecting a Table Cell or Table
There are a different ways to select an individual table cell, multiple table cells, the cell contents or the entire table. Often you must click on another part of the page outside of the table so that you can select the part you wish. This can confuse someone new to PageMill.
Selecting One or More Table Cells
Click the pointer inside the table and drag toward a border of the cell or cells you wish to select. The Table becomes highlighted with a thick line and selected cell borders are highlighted.
Selecting table cells is necessary when you want to constrain their height and width, format them as header cells, or non-wrapping cells, change the alignment of items within the cell, change the background color of a cell or cells, merge or split cells, or add and remove rows or columns.
Selecting Cell Contents
If selecting text, wipe the cursor over the text as you do in a word processor. If selecting a graphic, click on the graphic itself. If text and a graphic both exist in the cell, wipe the cursor over the item(s) you wish to select
Selecting an Entire Table
Pick one of the following methods:
- Click anywhere inside the table to display the thick line outside the table. Then click on the thick line that displays.
- Click outside of the table and drag into the table.
Using either method, a selected table is outlined with a thin line with handles. You select the entire table when you want to change its width, add a caption, add a border around the table, change the cell spacing or padding, or align the table on the page.
Entering Data in a Cell
To enter or replace data in the cell, type, drag and drop, or cut and paste directly into the cell. The cells get wider as you enter text. You can shorten a long entry in a table and prevent an awkward design with only a few wide columns by entering a line break (Shift-Return). The line break moves the remaining data down one line without inserting an empty line.
When a cell is created, it contains an invisible space in front of the text you type. Use the Delete key (Macintosh) or the Backspace key (PC) to remove the invisible space.
Creating Cells that Span Rows or Columns
When you create a table, all the cells are the same size and are designed to hold one value. You can make cells span multiple rows or columns by selecting the cells to join together and click the Join button on the toolbar.
Spanning multiple rows and columns is a good way to create special design effects.
Centering a table in a browser (Macintosh version 2.0 only)
When you want to align a table, you use the Text align buttons in the toolbar. Netscape Navigator, however, incorrectly displays tables that are center aligned in PageMill.
The tables appear left aligned when viewed in Netscape.
To center a table in the Netscape browser:
- Choose Edit, Preferences and click HTML
- In the HTML Syntax area, choose Center from the alignment menu.
- Click OK.
Assignment
Recreate the Athens News Feb 2. 1998 edition front page as closely as you can using PageMill's Tables function. Use scans and flag from the Newspaper folder on the Design Lab server. Pay attention to the type and size of graphics needed to work with the Netscape Template that I handed out. Remember that the viewing window is only 600 pixels wide, and that graphics must fit proportionally. Due in one week.NOTE: Larry Nighswander recreated the page just for practice. It can be viewed at http://www.viscom.ohiou.edu/anews/untitled.html
