10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes Mail 4.5 - 21 - Advanced Formatting In this lesson, you learn about adding sections and tables to your Mail messages. You'll also learn how to format and change layout features of tables. Creating Sections Sections are helpful in making large documents more manageable. You can gather all the information on one topic into a section. Sections collapse into one-line paragraphs or expand to display all the text in the section, so a reader doesn't have to read sections that aren't of any interest. Figure 21.1 shows a document with collapsed sections. Figure 21.1 A document with collapsed sections. When you gather text into a section, a small triangle appears to the left of the section head. To expand a section, click this triangle. Clicking again on the triangle collapses the section. To expand all the sections in a document, choose View, Expand All Sections from the menu. To collapse all sections, choose View, Collapse All Sections from the menu. Figure 21.2 shows a document with an expanded section. Figure 21.2 A document with an expanded section. To create a section in your message: 1. Create a new mail message. Type several paragraphs in the body field. 2. Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to make into a section. 3. Choose Create, Section from the menu. The first paragraph of the section becomes the section title. If you want to change it, follow these steps: 1. Click the section title. 2. Choose Section, Section Properties from the menu (see Figure 21.3). Figure 21.3 The Section Properties box with the Title tab chosen. 3. Click the Title tab. 4. Select Text, and then replace the text in the Title box with the section title you want. Don't use carriage returns, hotspots, or buttons in section titles. 5. Under Section Border, choose a Border style from the list box and a Border color from the list box. 6. If you want to hide the title of the section when it expands, click the Expand/Collapse tab, and check Hide title when expanded (see Figure 21.4). Figure 21.4 The Section Properties box with the Expand/Collapse tab chosen. If you want to format the section title, select it and choose Text, Text Properties. Click the Font tab; then select the font, size, style, and color you want for the section title. To move a section from one part of a document to another, select the section and choose Edit, Cut. Position your cursor where you want the section to appear. Choose Edit, Paste. When you want to remove a section, but still want to keep all the text in the section, select the section and choose Section, Remove Section. However, if you want to remove the section and all its text, choose Edit, Clear. Inserting Tables Tables offer an excellent way to organize data, and you can easily add tables to your mail messages. Figure 21.5 shows a mail message with a table inserted. Figure 21.5 A mail message with table inserted. To insert a table in your mail message: 1. Create a new memo. 2. Position your cursor in the body field where you want the table to appear. 3. Choose Create, Table or click the Create Table SmartIcon. The Create Table dialog box appears (see Figure 21.6). Figure 21.6 The Create Table dialog box. 4. Enter the number of Rows and Columns you want in your table. 5. Click OK. Inserting, Deleting, Copying, and Moving Columns and Rows If you didn't specify the correct number of columns or rows when you created the table, you can insert or delete columns or rows. To insert one column or row: 1. Click in the column or row where you want to insert a new one. New columns appear to the left of the column your cursor is in; new rows appear above the row your cursor is in. 2. Choose Table, Insert Column or Table, Insert Row from the menu. To add a row at the bottom of the table or a column at the right of the table, choose Table, Append Row or Table, Append Column from the menu. To add more than one column or row, position your cursor and choose Table, Insert Special. Specify the number of columns or rows you want to add and choose Column(s) or Row(s). Click Insert (see Figure 21.7). Figure 21.7 The Insert Row/Column dialog box. To delete a column or row, click in the row or column you want to remove. Choose Table, Delete Selected Column(s) or Table, Delete Selected Row(s). Click Yes to confirm the deletion. Remember: deleting a column or row also deletes all the text in that column or row. To delete several columns or rows, place your cursor in the first column or row of the ones you want to delete. Choose Table, Delete Special. Specify the number of columns or rows you want to delete, select Column(s) or Row(s), and click Delete. Choose Yes to confirm the deletion. Panic Button: Delete the Text, Not the Table! You don't have to delete columns or rows to delete the text. If you want to leave your columns and rows intact, select the text and choose Edit, Clear or press Delete. You can use Edit, Copy to copy rows or columns of data in a table. Edit, Cut will remove selected columns or rows and store them in the Clipboard. You can then use Edit, Paste to put them in a new position (where you have your cursor). Formatting Tables You can also control how your table looks. You can put borders around the outside of the table or around each cell. You can set the width of the columns and the space between columns and rows; and you can determine the overall width of the table. To set borders on the table: 1. Select the cells of the table to which you want to add borders. 2. Choose Table, Table Properties from the menu. Figure 21.8 shows the Table Properties box. Figure 21.8 The Table Properties box with the Cell Borders tab selected. 3. Click the Borders tab. You can choose how you want your borders to look: To set the type of lines you want to use as borders for your cells, choose Standard, Extruded, or Embossed from the Table border style list box. Click Outline to set the borders for only the outside lines of the current selection. To set the borders on all sides to single, click the Set All to Single button. To not have any borders, click the Set All to None button. To set the sides individually, specify the number of lines for each side (0 equals none, 1 equals single, 2 equals double, and so on). To set the overall width of the table, so the column widths will adjust to fit the table in the window: 1. Click anywhere in the table. 2. Choose Table, Table Properties from the menu. The Table Properties box appears. 3. Click the Layout tab. 4. Select Fit table width to window to automatically size the table to fit the window. Here are a few more changes you can make to the layout of your table: 1. Click anywhere in the table. 2. Choose Table, Table Properties from the menu. 3. Click the Layout tab (see Figure 21.9). Figure 21.9 The Table Properties box with the Layout tab selected. 4. Set any of the following layout features: To set the left margin of the table, enter a new value in the Left Margin box. To set the spacing between the columns and rows, enter a new value in Space between columns and/or Space between rows. To change the column width, remove the check mark from Fit table width to window and enter the new width in the Cell width box. You can also set the column width using the Ruler: 1. Click in the column you want to modify. 2. If you don't see the Ruler, choose View, Ruler from the menu. 3. The column has two thin bar pointers on the Ruler. Drag the first one to show where the column starts; drag the second one to where the column ends. You can also add color to the cells in your table or to the entire table: 1. Select the cell or cells you want to color. 2. Choose Table, Table Properties from the menu. 3. Click the Colors tab. 4. Select the color you want to use from the Background color drop-down list. 5. If you want the same background for all the cells in the table, click Apply to Entire Table. 6. If you want the cell background to be transparent, click Make Transparent. In this lesson, you learned how to create sections in your mail messages. You also learned how to add and format tables. In the next section, you learn about security.

©Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.