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

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NOTE:  The Quick Table option only produces the HTML tags to create the structure of the table. It’s up to you to go back through the code and place content in the table.

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Your other option for starting is to use the Table Wizard, which you can activate by clicking the Table Wizard button on the Tables toolbar or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+T. The wizard is composed of two dialog boxes, the first of which is shown in Figure 6.20. From this dialog box, you can set up the number of rows and columns your table should have, as well as any special row or column spanning. Clicking the Next button takes you to the second dialog box where you can set other table, row, and cell parameters. When you’re done, you can click the Finish button and HomeSite will write the necessary table tags into your document. Then all you need to do is fill in the contents of the individual cells.

FIGURE 6.20  The HomeSite Table Wizard is a visual tool for establishing the structure of a table.

To change properties for an individual cell, place your cursor in the cell you want to change and switch to the Cell Properties tab in the Wizard dialog box. There you can adjust the cell’s width, height, alignment values, text wrapping properties, and spanning values.

If you’re the kind who likes to get down into the guts of things and work with HTML tags, you’ll want to make use of the buttons on the HomeSite Tables toolbar. The buttons with a blue bar across the top of them place table-related tags (<TABLE>, <TR>, <TH>, and <TD>) by means of a dialog box that prompts you for an attribute that should go into the opening tag. The buttons to the right of those that don’t have a blue bar place the tag pair in the document and leave it to you to fill in any needed attributes. You can use these buttons to place <TABLE>, <TR>, <TD>, <TH>, and <CAPTION> tag pairs.

Adobe PageMill

You can easily create tables with PageMill’s intuitive table support. To begin, click the Insert Table tool on the toolbar shown in Figure 6.21. After you click the tool, you can specify the number of desired rows and columns in the ensuing dialog box. Alternatively, you can click the Insert Table tool and drag the mouse—either vertically or horizontally—the proper distance to denote the number of desired rows and columns.

You can resize tables in PageMill by selecting a table and dragging the tab on the right side or at the bottom to resize it. The number of rows and columns will remain the same, but their widths and heights will remain proportional to the size of the table.

As you work on tables in PageMill, the program’s interface will adapt to provide you with helpful tools. When you select cells in your tables, for example, the PageMill toolbar will change to include buttons that do the following:

•  Join or divide cells

•  Delete or insert columns

•  Delete or insert rows

FIGURE 6.21  PageMill offers several tools with which you can modify your HTML tables.

You can manipulate the look of your table through the PageMill Attributes Inspector. The Inspector is a utility that enables you to specify the attributes for objects (tables, graphics, and so on), forms, frames, and pages, with each attribute set arranged on a different tab. To access the Inspector, press F8 or select Show Inspector from the View menu.

	Leaving the width field blank in the Inspector instructs PageMill to size the table just wide enough to accommodate the contents of the table cells.

The Inspector enables you to place a caption at the bottom or on top of the tables, as seen in Figure 6.22. You can also specify the table border, cell spacing, and cell padding.

The Inspector will also enable you to modify the contents of a table cell. Simply select the cell to be modified, and the Inspector displays the cell attributes. Once again, you can specify the table width using the width parameter on the Object tab. With the Inspector, you can set certain cells as header cells and suppress word-wrapping as well. Finally, using the Inspector, you can specify the vertical and horizontal alignment of the cell contents.

FIGURE 6.22  The Inspector enables you to modify some of the attributes of your table.