Creating a Basic Table
When you want to use tables to produce an effect, you must master a few button clicks.
This handy little icon on the standard tool bar will allow you to create a basic table. The cells will be of uniform size. You can create a simple one celled table (one row, one column,) or any number of rows and columns.
When you first click on the icon, you will see a maximum of 4 rows, 5 columns. But, what if you want 6 rows and only 4 columns?
Click the icon. While holding your mouse button down, drag your cursor. It will expand the fly-out to as many rows and columns as you need. (Truthfully, I don't know how far it will go, I've dragged it completely off of my monitor screen and it was still going.)
| a | b | c | d |
| e | f | g | h |
| i | j | k | l |
| m | n | o | p |
| q | r | s | t |
| u | v | w | x |
Oops, I Don't Have Enough Cells!
What do I do now? Start all over again!? NO!
Put your cursor in the last cell. The one where the "x" is. Hit your tab key. Presto, another row!
| a | b | c | d |
| e | f | g | h |
| i | j | k | l |
| m | n | o | p |
| q | r | s | t |
| u | v | w | x |
| y | z |
Too Many Cells
Now I have too many cells. Not to worry, again, it's an easy fix. We just need to decide how we want to handle it.
Where do we want the y and z to be? Let's leave them there, and remove the two cells to the right. Highlight the two cells. Just place your cursor in the one on the left, then, with your button down, drag the cursor into the other cell. This will highlight the cells. With the cells highlighted, click on Table in the menu bar, and choose delete cells. Notice they are gone?
Images in a Table
The images above are in a table. First I created a 2 column, 1 row table. Then I placed my cursor on the center vertical until it changed into a double arrow. I then dragged the vertical line separating the 2 columns to the left. Leaving just enough room for the larger of the two images. I inserted the images, centering them in their cells. I then went into Menu - Table - Properties - Table. When the dialog box popped open, I chose 0 for the border size.
The best way to learn what each of these commands does is to experiment with them. I have included a list of tips and tricks here that I hope will be helpful.
Drawing a Table by Hand
The table below was drawn with the pencil on the toolbar. You will also find an eraser, text or image positioning buttons, a paint bucket to add color to your table background.
| here | is | |
| my | table | |