Support

Current behavior:
When a table is inserted, user is able to specify various options: number of rows and columns, cell spacing/padding, background color, border width/color etc.
Once the table is inserted, its parameters can only be modified and rows/columns edited by editing HTML code of the page, which is not feasible for most users. Firefox has basic built-in table editing functions: add/delete row/column, but it's interface is not  very user friendly and it does not have the ability to edit table formatting.

Workaround:
Copy-paste your table into an external editor like Microsoft Word, edit there and copy-paste it back.  However, the danger is that it will include extraneous formatting codes which will conflict with styles and formatting on the page. (Make sure to use 'Clean up HTML' button after pasting back)

Desired behavior:
Ability to call up the table editor on previously inserted tables to modify table parameters and add/delete rows/columns.

Notes:
In addition, it is desirable to extend table editor with additional formatting options, such as:
- specify width/text alignment for a given row/column/cell
- a set of templates to choose from, instead of formatting a table from scratch
This will be most probably be dealt with as a separate item.

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Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot

Tables are a basic staple of almost any web page.  WA currently has a table creation function in its web page editor which I use frequently.  But editing the table after it has been created is generally a long, tedious Edit HTML session.  At least I can do this; we also have some content folks that don't really understand HTML.  They tend to mess up existing tables and then have to delete and recreate them from scratch.

Could you add an integrated table editor to the web page editor?  I looking initially just for simple things like:  adding rows to the end of the table, adding columns to the right of the table, deleting single rows & columns, modifying the borders and backgrounds, and changing the table width percentage.  Ideally, an Edit Table toolbar button would identify the table where the cursor is sitting and display it in a special dialog box where these manipulations could be performed.

I'm sure you can get fancy with this by version 4.x.x where you can add rows & columns in the middle of a table, swap and move rows up and down, delete groups of rows, etc. etc., but right now I just need to keep folks from shooting themselves in the foot when updating tables.  Thanks!

Hi there,

We are in total agreement, it's just a question of priorities and resources. Table editor is in our plans - no specific timeline yet but pretty high up in the queue. 

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Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot

Agree, this really needs to be made easier. As above tables are a staple part of page formatting and not being able to edit them (other than direct in html) is a real drawback which restricts us being able to pass over some of the site administration to people who are not familiar with html.

Can't wait to see this!

WYSIWYG table handling (or even just more robust table editing even if it's not WYSIWYG) so users can easily add/remove rows/columns, change column widths, alignments, cell alignments, row background colors, etc.

 

I would like to be able to edit an already existing table without switching over to the HTML code (add a row, delete a row, etc)

Please see http://www.wildapricot.com/forums/thread/6083.aspx

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Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot

For many months I have been wanting to add a large table to my site.  It would have well over 100 rows, six columns and include hyperlinks to pdf documents.  It is a reference table and I'd need four versions of it in different sequences and it must have universal access.  I was not looking forward to maintaining this as an HTML table.

My first thought was a Google docs spreadsheet and I completed a working version only to find that Google docs does not allow universal access to .pdf's. Back to the drawing board!

The table I need is easy to create in Excel but saving it as an HTML file did not work although the approach was promising.  I then found a set of Excel tools which solved the problem.  The solution,  http://www.asap-utilities.com/ is a collection of a couple of hundred tools to manipulate data in an Excel worksheet.  It appears as a button on the Excel toolbar and it's free to the non-commercial user. 

One of the tools (Export -> HTML file) converts part or all of a worksheet to a perfect HTML table and places the HTML code in the windows clipboard.  Then by using the Snippet or HTML tools in the Wild Apricot Edit web page you can paste the entire table into the web page.  .  

This process is so good and so quick that I'm moving all my tables back to Excel and maintaining them there and just port the HTML code to Wild Apricot as needed.  There is no need to maintain or even look at the HTML code.  When modifying a table, I do have to delete the old HTML version, but that's a small price to pay.  I've not found any Excel feature that is not faithfully reproduced in the HTML table. 

You can see the tables I created this way are at www.srcc.memberlodge.com/archive .  This has satisfied my need for a table maintenance tool.

 Gordon

Tables are the foundation of web design.  Please, enable a simple interface for updating them after creation without needing to access the CRAMPED HTML editor.

Thank you!