moving tables

[DanJ77077]

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!

[Mike Wickham]

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

[DanJ77077]

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.

[Mike Wickham]

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.

[DanJ77077]

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

[lsk2002]

Dan,

I had the same problem with change bars...but it works the same for copying and pasting figures and tables. See below....the issue is really making sure that there is a body paratag after the caption or table and copy it with the table....or so that is what I have found. I now put the table captions in a table fow...seems to be easier to copy and paste that way....hope this helps.....

ls

After playing around with it, I went to a one column document to see if it would work there. Of course I was importing paragraph tags from

a document with side heads, so everytime I would try to do anything I would get an error message about side heads.

Anyway, you have to make sure that from the anchor down past the figure and paragraph tag after the figure is set up to be across all columns and/or columns and sideheads. Hightlight from the anchor of the figure, all the way through the figure tag/or spacer tag and click on the change bar radio button and it will make the change bar down the whole side of all. It also works if a figure is set up in a table, but you need a body/spacer tag after the table for it to highlight the whole thing. I couldn't get it to work on a regular table. I had to highlight the table cells for the change bars to show up. I would like for the change bar beside a table to be a complete line, but we haven't found a way to get it to do that. They just correlate with the cells. (Which is fine, at least we can get them there now...lol.)

Hope that helps someone!!

ls

Reply

lsk2002

53 posts since
Jul 16, 2009

Currently Being Moderated

4. Aug 28, 2009 3:24 PM in response to: lsk2002

Re: Change Bars

Just to let you know....I don't know why I couldn't get the table change bar to work yesterday. But....I did it today, and again, by adding a paratag after the table and making sure to highlight through that tag, I got a complete change bar line down the side of the table. Yea!!

[Mike Wickham · Accepted solution]

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)

[DanJ77077]

Excellent!  Thanks!

[Arnis Gubins]

Dan,

The FM toolbar also has a Select Table button (along with row, column, etc.) that allows for a one-click selection (including caption). If you're using FM9, then the "Table Formatting Toolbar" can be floated in the document work area or docked wherever...

[FoxisYourFriend]

This worked for me, too! 

Thank heaven!

[Tigdave]

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

[peter minneapolis]

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

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