Amending table format

[nicos35142193]

Hello colleagues,

I've been having an issue with amending table formats in FM 15 (Windows 8.1).

In the table format catalogue I have a table, which I want to amend (add ruling around a column). I have tried inserting a table, applying custom ruling in the "Custom Ruling and Shading" and then saving the table under a new table tag in the "Table designer". However, when I select "Insert Table" and select the newly created tag in the "Table Format" I still get the old table inserted.

Could you please tell me if there is any way to edit a table format and save it in the table format library?

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Nico

[Bob_Niland]

The key word may be "Custom".

It's always been my experience that unless a table tweak is entire things that are defined in the Table Designer for that tag, it is not added to the table format's catalog definition.

A work-around I've used is to create one or more Reference pages, and put an instance of each customized table format there. These template tables could then be copied to new Body pages where needed.

[Barb Binder]

I have tried inserting a table, applying custom ruling in the "Custom Ruling and Shading" and then saving the table under a new table tag in the "Table designer".

First to clarify the feature: Custom Ruling & Shading (CR&S) is not part of the table tag—it overrides the table tag on the selected cells. Yes, you can updating the ruling for an existing table tag, but it needs to follow the pattern options shown below. For anything else, i.e., custom ruling around one single column, that's when you need to use CR&S.

That said, Bob's workaround is a good one, if you don't have too many sample tables.

When I'm teaching tables to my Fm students—I try to make a big deal about the ease of using table formats found in Table Designer, and avoid CR&S wherever possible. It's not just a pain in the neck to assign CR&S to tables, it really falls apart when someone asks you to update the look of 1000 tables. Updating the table tag is quick. There is nothing quick about updating CR&S on multiple tables.

[nicos35142193]

Hello Bob and Barb,

Thank you for your help.

Could you please explain in a bit more details how to define the table format on the reference pages?

My goal is to have a table with ruling around only one column and have this table saved as a table tag. So that I don't have to override the format by applying CR&S to each table manually. The table designer seems not to be able to apply ruling to a single cell only.

Kind regards,

Nico

[Bob_Niland · Accepted solution]

re: Could you please explain in a bit more details how to define the table format on the reference pages?

View > Reference Pages

Special > Add Reference Page
Name: Tables (exact name optional)

Navigate to that page.

Place a text frame on the page, typically a mimic of your Left/Right pages, multi-column as needed.

Table > Insert Table
with as many rows and columns as needed for customizing

Repeat for each Table format that you need to track.
Customize to suit.
Copy and paste tables from this page to Body pages where needed.

Don't expect all updates to these template tables to be reflected in Body instances.

When I've felt the need to do this, I make sure to include both Heading and Footing rows, because I've needed to find out what FM was doing in those by default, due to bumbling about by previous document stewards. Footing rows are a popular place for missing font invocations to hide out.

FM stores a lot of defaults for Tables for which it provides no dialogs to edit those defaults. I don't know that the introduction of Styles did anything to fix that. I suspect not.

[nicos35142193]

Thank you, Bob!