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bernardc8812564
bernardc8812564
Participating Frequently
March 27, 2017
Answered

Create tables with spaces between cells (ie cellspacing)

  • March 27, 2017
  • 9 replies
  • 28880 views

Hi.

One image is better than 100 words, so here is one.

Untill now, this kind of table is done by grouping Text-blocks.
Do you know if ther is a way to get the same result using tables only using regular options or any plugin ?

Thanks in advance.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Laubender

Hi Aman,

at first glance the task seems to be an easy one. But it isn't.

What you are showing is not exactly what the OP—bernard—likes to accomplish.


In his sample there is no stroke around the table.

The gray header cells are showing no black strokes.
Just the fills.

It could be done using empty columns and empty rows.

But I assume this trick is not allowed.

Maybe something can be done by text formatting using a combination of paragraph shading, graphic lines above and below?
But that wouldn't be very flexible. And if the cells showing white as fill should be transparent behind a background it would be perhaps impossible to do…

Regards,
Uwe

9 replies

MW Design
MW Design
Inspiring
March 8, 2020

Maybe something can be done by text formatting using a combination of paragraph shading, graphic lines above and below?

 

Maybe. Probably.

I don't have a current subscription to ID so cannot try (CS6 doesn't have shading). The below was done in QXP using shading and tabbed text. Now that the styles are set up, a table could be copied to a decent text editor and manipulated using Regex, then brought in as a tagged text snippet. 

(oops, forgot to edit the text styles to make 'em white...)

 

karacte
karacte
Participating Frequently
March 7, 2020

I think I found an easy workaround for this. The answer is creating paragraph styles. After you create your table, make sure, within the table, you don't have any cell fills or strokes. Create paragraph styles with borders or shading and tweak the offset space, indents, etc. and natural space is left within the cells. It eliminates the need for extra columns or rows and other fiddly things.

 

These examples just show some of the ways you can add styles. Hope this helps!

    L
    Laubender
    Community Expert
    March 28, 2017

    Hi Bernhard,

    we can acchieve it, if:


    1. White strokes are allowed.

    2. The strokes of the cells are done with:
    A. Paragraph shading of the text

    B. A line above with a proper position and width

    I am also use a nearly undiscoverable feature of cell strokes that is only available in one menu where you can set the strokes of the cells to stroke style "None".

    Using stroke style "None" for the cell's stroke is shown here with my German InDesign. This option can only be found in the "Cell Options" menu. Nowhere else! The stroke width with my sample is 7pt.

    For the fill of the header rows I used another cell decoration feature. Not the usual fill, but "Diagonal Lines" with a large value for the point size that also comes with "Cell Options":

    Perhaps we can also use "Diagonal Lines" with the body cells plus Line Above for text formatting.

    But we also can use a combination of paragraph shading and Line Above for formatting the text of the body cells so that a "line around a fill" can be seen. Unfortunately paragraph shading was not developed further for a fill plus a line around a paragraph.

    Paragraph shading settings for text formatting:

    Line Above setting for text formatting case 1:

    Line Above setting for text formatting case 2:

    To Obi-wan:
    No, I did not forget about this sample you are showing :-)

    Regards,
    Uwe

      Eternal Warrior
      Eternal Warrior
      Inspiring
      March 28, 2017

      This is really useful knowledge Uwe!

      I never knew (or perhaps never looked) at the fact there was a stroke style "none" - In my head i was looking at how to change the stroke colour to none.

      So now I have advanced my knowledge!

      This is the best thing about trying to help people - when it also helps you... Haha!

      Eternal Warrior
      Eternal Warrior
      Inspiring
      March 28, 2017

      FWIW: You can also choose the stroke option none in table styles... Meaning that solution 1 will work regardless of background....

        Eternal Warrior
        Eternal Warrior
        Inspiring
        March 28, 2017

        There are many ways to achieve cell spacing.

        You certainly don't need to go to such complicated lengths as:

        bernardc8812564  wrote

        this kind of table is done by grouping Text-blocks.

        The quickest way would be amaarora​ suggestion.

        It sounds like you should learn more about table and cell styles as well as this can make things more "automatic".

          bernardc8812564
          bernardc8812564Author
          Participating Frequently
          March 28, 2017

          I'm not sure about your answer. Is this ironic?
          I know and use styles for several years.

          bernardc8812564
          bernardc8812564Author
          Participating Frequently
          March 30, 2017

          As my Master Yoda always said:

          "Young padawan, too impatient you are!

          The Strength, your alley is and always will be! …"

          "Keep cool!, bro!"!*

          Uwe is right! It was (zone) time to sleep!!

          EW, Not important you don't find this video useful! I've not posted it in this way!

          I've just indicated that it can be done, that it can be done by script and that it can be done in one click*!

          "Nuance !" [in French]

          If I can't give you the script code**, I can tell you what it does! 

          As I showed in my post#12, I used the same way as Uwe explained in his post#14 to make the stroke "invisible" [I love this feature from the Dark Side!!]

          That means no effect! Just overprint!

          The last issue for the op was the "supplementary stroke" around the cell!

          How I do it [personal approach]?

          "In a fight, what is important is to know his enemy!" [Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Vth century BC] 

          Our enemy is a "table"! … So a layout structure whose main specificity is a "cells" assembly!

          Each cell has properties, especially: Width & Height! 

          So, the idea is simple: As the script treats each cell, It "extracts" each cell characteristics and converts them:

          • Cell color background --> "diagonalLineStrokeColor"

          • Cell color background transparency --> "diagonalLineStrokeOverprint"

          …

          • Cell "width"

          • Cell "height"

          Trick: Looping each cell, the script extracts its width/height and inserts at its para beginning an anchored rectangle [with a stroke whose color = Cell color background] whose width/height equals to them!

          To "decide" if the script has to play for "headers", it will use a condition as: If the cell is an "header", don't add a rectangle! 

          To finish, the script plays this music "in batch"! … So, my client, who has several hundred of tables to be treated, can now do it … in 1 click!

          Time is Money! … even if happiness has no price!

          If the layout moves, just play the entire script again or its light version about anchoring!

          (^/)

          [ * Personal comment! ** The script use, not the script itself, has been sold [if somebody interested, PM me!] ]


          Thanks to all for your interest and answers.

          I tried to play with  stroke styles, in addition to solution #1 but the result is not perfect.

          As you can see, inside space is different for some cells.

          Obi-wan Kenobi​ : your scripts seems tobe the best solution in my case. Is it available ?

          I really don't understand why this "cellspacing" option is not implemented in Indesign. It's a lack.

          amaarora
          Community Manager
          amaaroraCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          March 28, 2017

          Hi,

          An easy workaround to achieve something similar in InDesign would be to apply cell Stroke to the table cells with appropriate weight.

          First create a table of desired number of cells and columns

          Select all the cells and open the strokes panel from window menu.

          Apply the stroke as shown in the below screenshot. To increase the spacing between cells, you can increase the stroke weight. however, this will also increase the weight of the black section.

          Preview, if the cell spacing is as per need. You can then fill cells with the needed colors and type your data. Also note that this leaves an extra border around your table.

          Regards,

          Aman

            L
            LaubenderCorrect answer
            Community Expert
            March 28, 2017

            Hi Aman,

            at first glance the task seems to be an easy one. But it isn't.

            What you are showing is not exactly what the OP—bernard—likes to accomplish.


            In his sample there is no stroke around the table.

            The gray header cells are showing no black strokes.
            Just the fills.

            It could be done using empty columns and empty rows.

            But I assume this trick is not allowed.

            Maybe something can be done by text formatting using a combination of paragraph shading, graphic lines above and below?
            But that wouldn't be very flexible. And if the cells showing white as fill should be transparent behind a background it would be perhaps impossible to do…

            Regards,
            Uwe

              amaarora
              Community Manager
              amaaroraCommunity Manager
              Community Manager
              March 28, 2017

              Hi Uwe,

              i totally agree with you.

              I only intended to give a workaround to achieve a close result.

              The stroke can be used to achieve just the cell spacing and later the color can be changed to paper, by selecting the entire table and then choosing stroke color from the control strip.

              Agreed, that this method too would need lot of tweaking and adjustments to make it look identical to the desired design.

              -Aman

              M
              Malcolm Whild
              Participating Frequently
              March 27, 2017

              Hi,

              Every cell in an Indesign table has cell insets, which automatically default to 4pt (1.411mm) so you shouldn't need to worry about it.

              Make sure that you use table and cell styles to keep consistency as it looks as if your tables are fairly complex.

              Regards,

              Malcolm

              Pariah Burke
              Pariah Burke
              Community Expert
              March 27, 2017

              The original poster tagged the question "InDesign", folks. I'm moving the post to the InDesign Forum.

              Nancy OShea
              Nancy OShea
              Community Expert
              March 27, 2017

              In HTML tables, we use CSS padding on the table cell selector.

              td {

                   padding: 20px;  /**adjust values to suit**/

              }

              Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator
                John T Smith
                John T Smith
                Community Expert
                March 27, 2017

                The Lounge Forum is not for technical help, please provide the name of the program you are using so your message may be moved to the correct program forum... A program would be Photoshop or Dreamweaver or Muse or Premiere Pro or ???

                bernardc8812564
                bernardc8812564Author
                Participating Frequently
                March 28, 2017

                @John T Smith:  Sorry, I thought I posted in the right place

                @

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