Platinum Edition Using HTML 4, XML, and Java 1.2
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): Eric Ladd
ISBN: 078971759x
Publication Date: 11/01/98

The end product of any of the previous actions is a blank table waiting to have content placed in the cells. If you place text into the cells, you can simply type it in. You can also place images, horizontal rules, blank space, and other tables in individual cells in much the same way as you would on the full-sized page.

FrontPage’s extensive Table menu also helps you with many table-related tasks that are cumbersome to create otherwise. You can choose to insert a caption, cell, row, or column into an existing table, for example—something that can be tedious to do if you were working with the raw HTML code. The Table menu can also assist with

•  Cell operations—You can choose to delete or merge a set of cells or to split one cell into multiple cells.

•  Selection operations—It’s often a tricky thing to select a particular cell, row, or column within a table. The Select options on the Table menu make it a simple matter. To select a column, for example, you can place the cursor in a cell that occupies the column you want to select; then choose Table, Select Column. You can select the contents of the entire table this way as well.

•  Even distribution—When you draw a table by hand, you might not get your rows or columns to be the same size. To even things out, you can select the rows or columns and choose one of the distribute evenly Table menu options to make each row or column the same size.

•  Text/Table conversion—Switching between plain text and table format is a breeze with FrontPage’s options that enable you to convert between the two.

•  Properties—You can call up Properties dialog boxes for your table’s caption, a selected cell, or for the entire table (see Figure 6.17).

FIGURE 6.17  Global table properties are easy to change, as are those for individual cells.

	Many of the options on the Table menu are also replicated on the FrontPage Table toolbar. If you don’t see the toolbar, choose View, Table Toolbar to activate it.

Netscape Composer

Netscape’s integrated Web document authoring tool Composer checks in with a fair amount of table support as well. By clicking the Table button on the Composer toolbar or by choosing Insert, Table, Table, you get the table kickoff dialog box shown in Figure 6.18. Here you can specify all the parameters that Composer needs to set up a new table. After you click OK, Composer will place a blank table on the page according to your specs. After the blank table is in place, you’re free to fill in the individual cells with whatever content you choose.

FIGURE 6.18  Netscape Composer prompts you for any global table attributes you want to specify when first setting up a table.

Should you need to insert or delete any cells, rows, or columns, Composer can help you. You can find the insert options under the Insert menu. Choosing Insert, Table reveals a set of items that you can insert. Similarly, you can choose Edit, Delete Table to see a list of table components that you can remove.

Like the FrontPage Editor, Composer gives you access to cell, row, or table properties, but all the property settings are lumped into one dialog box. To call up the properties, right-click a cell in the table and choose Table Properties from the pop-up menu that appears. Figure 6.19 shows you the result of this action. Note that tabs exist in the dialog box for table, row, and cell level properties.

FIGURE 6.19  Need to tweak your table? Netscape Composer enables you to do it all from one place.

Allaire HomeSite

Allaire’s HomeSite HTML editor gives you a number of ways to work with tables. Probably the fastest way to start is to use the Quick Table button at the end of the Tables toolbar. Clicking this button reveals a 12-row-by-6-column grid that you can drag your mouse pointer over to choose the size of your table. After you select the appropriate size, HomeSite writes in the necessary HTML tags to support the table.