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DanJ77077
Participant
February 5, 2010
Answered

moving tables

  • February 5, 2010
  • 2 replies
  • 3138 views

I'm finding moving tables (cutting and pasting them) to be difficult.  The only way I can seem to select the table for cutting is to find the text symbol of its placement in the document, then click and drag over the symbol until the table is shown as highlighted.  I then cut and paste it elsewhere.  The problem is I usually end up cutting and pasting one or more characters adjacent to the table symbol, like newlines.  I then have to re-add the accidentally cut characters at the cut location and delete the extra characters at the paste location.  Is there a better way to move JUST the table?

I am using "float" for the placement of the tables.  Another problem with this is trying to find the place where the table is inserted in the text.  If I have several tables on the same page, I have to highlight the various insert position text symbols in the text until the desired table is highlighted.  Why can't I just use the mouse to drag over the table to select it?  If I try to do that, it just selects rows of the table.

Thanks in advance!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Mike Wickham

    By caption, I meant "title" -- it's part of the table.


    Well what do you know. I tried it on a table without title and didn't

    realize that the title wouldn't come along with it. So I looked up the

    shortcuts to select a table:

    1. Esc t h t

    2. control-triple-click in the table (this one takes a little finesse to

    get the timing right)

    2 replies

    T
    Tigdave
    Inspiring
    February 18, 2010

    Trying to highlight a single table anchor (or frame anchor, or marker, or any other skinny FM indicator) by using the mouse is like trying to play piano with mittens. (I'm just guessing here, as I've not actually tried playing piano with mittens.)

    Use the Up, Down, Left, Right arrow keys in combination with the Shift key instead.

    One other point. If you are moving any text containing cross-ref markers, use a cut-then-paste operation.

    Don't use a copy-then-paste-then-delete-the-old-one operation or you will lose the cross-ref markers that were in the text.

    Dave

    P
    peter minneapolis
    Participating Frequently
    February 18, 2010

    Tigdave wrote:

    Trying to highlight a single table anchor (or frame anchor, or marker, or any other skinny FM indicator) by using the mouse is like trying to play piano with mittens. (I'm just guessing here, as I've not actually tried playing piano with mittens.)

    Use the Up, Down, Left, Right arrow keys in combination with the Shift key instead.

    One other point. If you are moving any text containing cross-ref markers, use a cut-then-paste operation.

    Don't use a copy-then-paste-then-delete-the-old-one operation or you will lose the cross-ref markers that were in the text.

    Dave

    It's handy to insert a space character to separate table and frame anchors from each other and other content, for easier selection.

    HTH

    Regards,

    Peter

    _______________________

    Peter Gold

    KnowHow ProServices

    M
    Mike Wickham
    Inspiring
    February 5, 2010

    There's probably a keyboard shortcut, but I don't know it. So, just drag

    your mouse from the upper left to lower right to select the whole table.

    Then Ctrl-X to remove it to the clipboard. You'll have to answer the dialog

    about whether or not to leave the cells empty or remove them completely.

    Then place the cursor at the new location and use Ctrl-V to paste the table

    into the new location.

    Option: If you get the FM ToolbarPlus Express customization add-on, it adds

    a right-click menu item that allows you to select a table:

    http://www.microtype.com/ToolbarPlus.html

    D
    DanJ77077Author
    Participant
    February 5, 2010

    Clicking and dragging like you say doesn't work for my case, because my tables have captions and they cannot be selected in that way.  The paste ends up creating a new table without a caption.

      M
      Mike Wickham
      Inspiring
      February 5, 2010

      Do you mean that there is an separate caption paragraph below each table?

      Can you create a footer row in your tables and put the captions in there?

      That way they will always be attached to the paragraph.

      Another option is to set the table title to be below the table and use it to

      hold captions. If you need to use a table title, just make it a header row.

      Again, everything stays as one unit for selecting and moving. This is the

      method I use for tables.

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