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And2sky
Participant
August 24, 2023
Question

Resizing Multiple Tables at Once

  • August 24, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 719 views

I'm working with a client on a pocket guide. They're concerned they may want to change the page dimensions later. The guide will contain tables on every other page, displaying different data on each page but with the same table layout.

 

How can I format the tables so if I resize one on one page, all of them will resize the same way?

 

I want to be able to resize the overall dimensions and the individual cell and row dimensions and have it change on every page.

 

Is this possible? I can do it easily with HTML and CSS.

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3 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 25, 2023

No, this is not within the InDesign feature set. Column widths and row heights are handled on a table-by-table basis and can't be controlled globally. Scripts and plug-ins enhance InDesign's feature set, and it looks like you have a couple of suggestions to check out.

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
Robert at ID-Tasker
Legend
August 25, 2023

If you are working on a PC - you could use FREE version of my ID-Tasker - the only limitation is that you would have to click on each table to initiate the process - but all the formatting would be done automatically - height / width of rows / columns, conversion of regular rows into headers and vice versa, conditional styling based on the contents, counting rows / columns from the end of the table so tables can have different size, etc. - still quicker than doing it all manually and more flexible than custom script.

With paid version - you can process whole server - 100s of files, incl. subfolders, automatically - and each table can be styled differently - depends on its size, current styling, contents, location, etc.

And at the end you can automatically export PDF - or more than one using different profiles - as spreads / pages, individual pages, ranges, JPEGs, etc.

 

Scott Falkner
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 24, 2023

Unfortunately InDesign’s table and cell styles are very limited, to the point I consider them superfluous. Cell width and height cannot be included as style attributes. You could probably script it, and someone might have already done so. Below is a scripts and articel I found on CreativePro (formerly InDesign Magazine). Untried.

 

https://creativepro.com/sizing-tables-with-script/