RESOLVED: *EFFICIENTLY* inserting and configuring tables?

[Phlawm53]

NOTE: Although the ultimate resolution is arguably not hugely efficient, it is better than what I was doing when I created this Forum topic.

Flare 8 sanity check please: Inserting a particular type of table AND then configuring the table seems ridiculously complicated and inefficient.

I'm probably overlooking the obvious, but here are the steps I have identified:

1. Use the Flare TableStyle Editor to create a table style of the form [tableName].css file. After so doing, this step does not need to be regularly repeated (he said).
2. In the Flare Topic Editor, use the "grid tool" to insert a generic unformatted table containing some number of columns and rows.
3. Apply the table style created in Step 1, above. The table will not automatically include a header row(?)
4. Open the Table Properties tool and add a Header row. While there, specify total table width as a percentage.
5. Back in the Topic Editor, specify the width of each table column as a percentage. (Only IF one knows how many columns a table instance will always have does it seem wise to use TableStyleEditor —> Columns to specify column widths?)

I compare this workflow to the ease with which I can quickly apply a class to an img selector that specifies, inter alia, the image's size. I can also easily create a companion img class for any other CSS media in my project. Voila! A given Target's images are easily sized / configured AND if I want to change their attributes I only need to do a quick edit of the class by medium.

Is it possible to do anything similar to efficiently insert then format a table?

Part of the problem seems to me to be a "disconnect" between Flare's TableStyle Editor and its Table Properties tool. Only the Table Properties tool provides the following options that I'd like to specify in the TableStyle Editor:

• Autofit to window as a percentage
• Number of header rows (This option seems like a natural for the TableStyle Editor to me?)

I understand how to use Flare Snippets to insert a table which I can then convert to text. And I've kinda sorted out the media control in the TableStyle Editor. But I see that "trick" and others only as circumventions, not solutions.

The essential point is that it seems to me that inserting and formatting a table using Flare's multiple table tools seems to comprise an absurd number of steps. Or am I overlooking the obvious?

Cheers & thanks for your help,
Riley
SFO

[nickatwork]

Rather than using the table icon to insert your table, use the menu Table > Insert > Table.
There you can set a table header, select the tablestyle to use and pretty much anything else you want. I never use the 'quick insert' option as it just takes longer.

[RamonS]

Riley - feel free to submit your suggestion here: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/Submit.aspx

[Phlawm53]

Thanks to all.

I wonder if I'm still missing something re:

Rather than using the table icon to insert your table, use the menu Table > Insert > Table.
There you can set a table header, select the tablestyle to use and pretty much anything else you want. I never use the 'quick insert' option as it just takes longer.

Per the following screenshot, for me Ribbon —> Table —> Insert Table inserts a generic unformatted table. I still need to use Table Properties to specify the table type / name, add a header row, and so on(?)

Flare080102TableInsertTable.png

Or…?

Cheers & thanks 'gain to all,
Riley
SFO

[whunter]

If you click the icon above Insert Table, then it will open the Insert Table dialog directly, and then you can specify the table style, header row, etc. before the table is inserted. You don't have to use that Word-style insertion thing where you select the boxes for rows and columns (I hate that thing).

[Phlawm53]

Ohhhhh…

If you click the icon above Insert Table, then it will open the Insert Table dialog directly, and then you can specify the table style, header row, etc. before the table is inserted. You don't have to use that Word-style insertion thing where you select the boxes for rows and columns (I hate that thing).

Great, thanks! It's both funny and embarrassing: I'm often the person co-workers come to for tools questions, yet I had no idea I could simply click on the Insert Table icon to display the Insert Table dialog.

Anyhow, that certainly makes it a lot easier: The Insert Table dialog box provides the ability to (a) choose the Table style (that is, a Flare table CSS file name) or Table class; (b) choose and configure Autofit to window; specify Number of header rows; and settings for the inserted table.

So the labour intensiveness of the table insertion process has been simplified. (Thanks again whunter).

Cheers & thanks 'gain to all,
Riley
SFO