Playing With Tables

This section just plays around with some of the things you can do to make tables.

Table Borders

Table borders outline the table and it's cells. This table has a border size of 4, and border colors of Grey, Silver, Black. (Note: border colors aren't implemented in Netscape Navigator 3.0)

	Table
	Column 1	Column 2
Row 1	Cell 1	Cell 2
Row 2	Cell 3	Cell 4

Merging Adjacent Cells

Select a row in a table, or adjacent cells.

	Table
	Column 1	Column 2
Row 1	Cell 1	Cell 2
Row 2	Cell 3	Cell 4

Then use the Table menu Merge Cells, to merge the cells.

Table
	Column 1	Column 2
Row 1	Cell 1	Cell 2
Row 2	Cell 3	Cell 4

Tables In Tables

Create a 2 row, 1 column table

Table

Move the cursor to the bottom cell, then using the Table menu, insert a 3 row, 3 column table (note: I set the border of this table to 1, and border color to Grey)

Table

Select the left column, of inserted table

Table

Then merge the cells

Table

As you type in each letter for the word 'Rows', use the Insert menu, Break sub-menu, to insert a Normal Line Break after each letter.

Table

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell 3 Cell 4

Inserting a Column

Move the cursor to Cell 2, then use the Table menu, Insert Rows or Columns, to insert 1 column to the right.

Table

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Cell 1 Cell 2   Cell 3 Cell 4

Cell Alignment

Using the Cell Properties dialog you can horizontally align the words in a cell to the Left, Center, or Right.

Table

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Left Center Right Left Center Right

Using the Cell Properties dialog you can veritcally align the words in a cell to the Top, Middle, or Bottom. (Note: I selected each colum of the sub-table, and merged the cells, to change the table layout.)

Table

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Fixed Width

It is often useful to fix the widths of columns. Select Column 1, Column 2, Column 3, and using the Cell Properties dialog, check the Specify Width check box, and set the width of the columns to 100 pixels.

Table

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Coloring Cells

Using the Cell Properties dialog, you can set the background color of a cell.

Table

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Table Alignment

Using the Table Properties Dialog, you can align the table on the page.

Left

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

 

Center

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

 

Right

R o w s Column 1 Column 2 Column 3

Bold Borders

Although Netscape Navigator does not support colored borders, you can create Bold Borders which are colored in both Netscape and MSIE, by adding extra rows and columns to your table.

			Hello World

Using my favorite spacers (periods set to the appropriate color) to fill in the surrounding cells for the desired spacing.

..	..	.	.	.	..	..
.	.	..	Hello World	..	.	.
.	.	.	.	.	.	.

Then just set the background colors of the cells to create a bold border.

..	..	.	.	.	..	..
.	.	..	Hello World	..	.	.
.	.	.	.	.	.	.

Another variation on this, is to use a transparent GIF spacer. Create your table with surrounding rows and columns.

Put a transparent GIF in the surrounding cells, and set the background colors.

	.	.
.	Spacers.
.	.

And here is the final result with thin borders (I used a 2x2 GIF).

	Spacers

Thin Table Border

This will give you a border that works both in Netscape and MSIE. The concept is to put one table inside of another. Set the background color of the outside table to the desired border color. Set the background color of the inside table to the desired background of the element you are inserting. The controlling parameters for the border are on the outside table, Cell Padding for thickness, and Background Color for color. The tricky part of this technique is selecting the outer table after you have inserted the inner table, you use the mouse on the left hand dotted border of the outer table and click (the mouse will change to a black sideways arrow). Note: To keep FrontPage from inserting a blank line after (under) the inner table, always type at least one character into the Inner Table's cell, before saving your file.

First create a 1 row 1 cell table.

Then set the table properties as follows, set the Backgound Color to your border color, and the Cell Padding to your border thickness. Set the Cell Properties of the cell for the table, Horizontal Alignment to Center, and Vertical Alignment to Middle.

Position the cursor inside the table, then Insert a new table.

.

Set the key table properties of the inner table, set the alignment to Center, and the Background color to your desired color. You can set any other parameters to what you want. I set the Cell Padding (margin) of the inner table to 8, so the text is not up against the border.

All Done

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JES - 03/28/98