Cellstyles are not being applied, when creating a table or applying the tablestyle.

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
December 11, 2016
3 replies
8192 views

Hi Indesign-Friends,

I set up some custom tablestyles, containing some custom cellstyles for header and footer rows, left and right columns, and body rows. Those Cellstyles again, contain different formatstyles.

However, whenever i create a new table, with the selected tablestyle, or apply the tablestyle to a existing table, the cellstyles are not being applied :/...

I can't seem to solve that riddle...

Any idea where the mistake could be?

I'm happy to provide screenshots if necessary.

Best regards,

Paul

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Barb Binder

In my experience, it's overrides. Try this on one table:

Save the file
Select the entire table and remove all the overrides:
1. Alt/Opt click on [Basic Table] in the Table Styles panel
2. Alt/Opt click on [None] in Cell Styles panel
3. Alt/Opt click on [Basic Paragraph] in the Paragraphs Styles panel
4. Optionally, Alt/Opt click on [None] in the Character Styles panel
Then try assigning the table style

Barb Binder

Community Expert

I just remembered that I wrote a post on this topic a few years ago—the info is still current, however:

https://www.rockymountaintraining.com/adobe-indesign-tables-that-wont-accept-table-and-cell-styles/

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Barb Binder

Correct answer

Community Expert

In my experience, it's overrides. Try this on one table:

Save the file
Select the entire table and remove all the overrides:
1. Alt/Opt click on [Basic Table] in the Table Styles panel
2. Alt/Opt click on [None] in Cell Styles panel
3. Alt/Opt click on [Basic Paragraph] in the Paragraphs Styles panel
4. Optionally, Alt/Opt click on [None] in the Character Styles panel
Then try assigning the table style

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Great news, Paul!

Here's one more tip—when I'm in a table-intensive workflow, I have a workspace set up to make that sequence quick and easy. I call it Table Focus, and it puts all those panels front and center. The feature you are using is an important one for table-intensive documents. When set up correctly, you can format an entire table with one click on the table style (because of the nesting potential—table styles calling in cell styles, cell styles calling in para styles, paras styles calling in GREP and character styles.) In long doc layout, this is the difference between having evenings and weekends free, or not!

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Yes, Barb, that's all true and fine (in terms it's possible to make use of them), however, I still think InDesign's Table Styles are pretty unfriendly to user. In the days CS (ID 3.0) was young I had the opportunity to use Woodwing Smart Styles. Excellent plugin, especially useful for tables. Pricey, though... Native ID Table Styles still come nowhere near.

I've never used that plug-in, but I do use this technique successfully, and have for years. Not saying it not worth looking at, of course, just that I haven't yet had a need to look elsewhere. (And that's why I'm not walking away in defeat, quite yet!)

So Paul: that screen shot looks perfect. May I see the general settings of Kopfzeile feat & zentriert? For example: