Bottom
Previous
Contents
Tables consist of cells which are organised into rows and columns. Individual
cells, called spanners, can be made to span over two or more columns.

- Column headings can be made to repeat on the next page.
- Cells, groups of cells, rows, columns and the table itself can be adorned
with borders or rules.
- Tables can be given a caption by incorporating them into a figure and can
be grouped so that they don't straddle page breaks.
- Cells can contain a single paragraph, a picture or another table.
- Columns can have fixed widths and text within them will word wrap.
- Cells, groups of cells, rows, columns and the table itself can be given
background colours or shades.
- When applying attributes you can select Column cells or Row
cells in which case the attributes are not linked to the table but will
move with the cell if, for example, you insert a new row.
- Or you can select Table Row, Table Column in which case the
attributes are part of the Table and remain fixed to the same place. For
example, if row one is bold and you insert a new row above it, the new row one
will become bold and the old row one will inherit whatever properties were in
row two.
|
|
Row cells selected
| Table Row selected
|
- The selection Table Body body applies attributes to all the cells of
the table and to any that may be added later. For example select Table Body,
change the background to blue and insert or add a column and it will have a
blue background. This would not be the case if you had simply dragged over all
the cells in the Table.
- The selection Table is similar to Table body but applies to
the table as a whole.
Apply a border when Table is selected and the table will get an outline.
Apply a border when Table body is selected and each cell will get an
outline as will any subsequent cells that are added.
Apply a border when you have drag selected over the cells and any subsequent
cells added will not have outlines.
To start a table
- Click on the Table button or choose Table (Ctrl-Shift-F6
) from the Structures menu, or
- Drag in a CSV file. By default an Automatic column width table will
be created but if the table doesn't fit between the page margins it will be
converted to a Fixed column width table. Hint: Fixed width tables have
I-beams on the ruler when the table is selected.
Adding a column
- If the caret is in the right hand column, pressing Tab will add a
new column to the right, or
- Choose Table from the Structure menu then choose On left
(Ctrl-Shift-L) or On right (Ctrl-Shift-R) from the
Add column submenu.
A new column will be inserted to the left or right of the column containing the
caret.
Note: If you are using fixed width tables a dialogue will appear warning if
there is not enough room to create a new column.
- Click Cancel, adjust the right margin and other markers and try
again or
- Click Continue to create a column that will be outside the page
bounds and drag the borders into the document area. (You may need to Zoom down
to do this),
Adding a row
- If the caret is in the bottom row, pressing Return will add a new
row to the bottom of the table, or
- Choose Above (Ctrl-Shift-A) or Below (Ctrl-Shift-B
) from the Add row submenu. A new row will be inserted above or
below the row containing the caret.
Note: Choose Table from the Structure menu to see the Add row
submenu.
Selecting
- 1 Position the caret anywhere in the row or column you want to select.
2 Choose Table body, Table column or Table row from the
Select menu, or
2 Press F11 until the body, column or row is
selected, or
2 Drag across the row or column you want to select.
Removing a column or row
- Select the column or row you want to remove.
- Press Delete or Backspace.
Moving a column or row
- Select the column or row you want to move.
- Choose Cut (Ctrl-X) from the Edit menu.
- Select the destination column/row (add a new column/row if required).
- Choose Paste (Ctrl-V) from the Edit menu.
Horizontal Spanners
- Position the caret in the cell you want to span over more than one column.
- Choose Span from the Table menu.
- Edit the number of columns to span.
You can also press Ctrl-Shift-N to span over the next column, press
Ctrl-Shift-N again to span over one more and so on. If a block of cells is
selected it converts the block into a single spanner cell.
Moving cells in tables
Make sure that you match the cut and paste areas. i.e. Select three cells side
by side, choose Cut, select three cells side by side and choose
Paste.
Vertical Spanners
There is no command for vertical spanners however you can achieve the same
effect by nesting tables.

In the above example the two cells in column two are single column tables, each
with two rows.
Alignment
- Select the cell, cells, row or columns you want to align.
- Click on the Left, Centre, Right or Full justify
alignment icon.
Note: The left, centre and right justification icons cause EasiWriter to align
the contents of the cells and also centre them in the column containing them.
The full justify icon aligns to the left without centring.
Rules between rows
- Select all but the bottom row, of the rows you want to separate with a rule.
- Choose Borders from the Format menu.
- Click on Bottom Border and the type of line you want.
- Click OK.
Rules between columns
- Select all but the rightmost column of the columns want to separate with a
rule.
- Choose Borders from the Format menu.
- Click on Right Border and the type of line you want.
- Click OK.
Repeating the heading
- Select the Row that is to be the heading.
- Choose Column head from the Table menu.
The heading will repeat on subsequent pages.
Note: The heading can be any row.
Keeping a table together
- Select the table.
- Choose Change... from the Format menu.
- The Table Format dialogue box will appear:

- Click the Keep in same page/column
option icon.
Creating a fixed column table
Although the default is Automatic, EasiWriter has the option of having
user definable Fixed width columns in tables. Text in this type of table
will word wrap if it no longer fits in the column.
- Click on the Table button.
- Press Tab to create the number of columns required.
- Select the table and click on the Style indicator.
- Click on Automatic column widths to turn it off.
- Edit the Space between columns if required.
- Click OK to confirm the choices.
Altering the widths of columns
- Select the table (check that Automatic column widths is turned off)
and make sure the ruler is showing (F10).
- Drag the 'I' column markers to the position you want or double click on
them and type in a value.
Adding background colours
- Select the Cell, Column, Row or part of the Table.
- Click on the Borders button.
- Choose the colour or shade and click OK.
Shift-Tab
The Tab key is used to move from one column to another which means it
can't be used to insert a tab character in a cell. Use Shift-Tab.
Next
Top