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Editing Tables

In addition to simply clicking in cells and typing text, there are several ways that you can edit tables after inserting them into topics.

Topic styles You can modify the look and feel of multiple tables at once by editing standard HTML table tags (e.g., <table>, <th>, <td>, <tr>) in your topic style sheet. For example, you might use these styles in order to control the look of the text that appears in your table headings (<th> style) or within the cells (<td> style). See Editing Table Styles in Topic Style Sheets.

When you insert a table, it is set up by default to use standard table tags in the individual cells (e.g., <th> for table headers, <td> for regular table text). However, if you press Enter at the end of a line, a <p> tag is added within the standard tag. Therefore, in order to keep all of the content in your table cells looking consistent, you may want to create a special style class of the <p> tag to be used for table content (e.g., p.tabletext) and apply that style to all of your cells when you first create a table. You can apply specific styles to tables by selecting the table cells, clicking Table>Cell Content Style, and choosing the style to be used for those cells. See Selecting Styles for Table Cell Contents.
Table styles You can modify the look and feel of multiple tables at once by editing the properties in a custom table style sheet. These table style sheets let you easily and quickly create patterns and different looks for tables. See How to edit styles in a table style sheet.

Note: When controlling the look of tables, you should not create and use classes of standard HTML table tags (e.g., a class of the <tr> tag) if you also intend to use table style sheets.
Converting to text If you have a table containing text, you can remove the table but keep the text. When doing this, you can choose how the converted text should be represented: paragraphs, separated with commas, separated with text. See Converting Tables to Text.
Cutting columns and rows You can cut entire columns and rows in a table. When you do this, a paste icon after the table. This icon allows you to specify how you would like to handle the content when you cut the columns or rows. You can also set the default behavior for similar actions in the future. See Cutting Table Columns and Rows.
Deleting tables You can delete a table from a content file (e.g., topic, snippet). See Deleting Tables.
Inserting rows and columns You can easily insert additional rows and columns into an existing table. See Inserting Table Columns and Rows.
Merging table cells You can turn multiple cells in a table into one big cell. This is called "merging" cells. You can merge any number of rows and columns in a table, as long as they are adjacent to one another. See Merging Table Cells.
Merging tables If you have two tables in a topic or snippet that are positioned one after the other, you can merge those tables so that they become one. You can do this by using the paste icon that may appear to the right of the tables. See Merging Tables.
Moving table columns and rows You can use row and column structure bars to move rows and columns. See Moving Table Columns and Rows.
Pasting cells within a table You can copy cells from one table to another. If you copy cells from a table, then place your cursor within a single table cell and paste the contents, a paste icon displays to the right. This icon allows you to specify how you would like to handle the pasted cells. You can also set the default behavior for similar actions in the future. See Pasting Cells Within a table.
Resetting local cell formatting If you have applied local formatting to a table (e.g., applying background shading to cells directly, not through the use of styles), you can easily remove it. This is possible even if the topic was previously saved and closed. See Resetting Local Cell Formatting.
Resizing tables You can use row and column structure bars to adjust the height and width of tables, columns, and rows. See Resizing Tables.
Setting page layout breaks You can set page layout breaks on tables using a couple of different options. In topic style sheets, you can set breaks on the standard HTML table tags. The most common approach is to set breaks on table rows through the <tr> style tag. Another option is that you can set breaks on entire tables and individual rows through a table style sheet. And because you can create patterns in table style sheets, each pattern item might have different settings for breaks. See Setting Page Layout Breaks on Tables.
Sorting table rows You can sort rows in a table by selecting an option from the Table menu at the top of the interface or from table context menus. Rows can be sorted in ascending or descending order, numerically and alphabetically (numbers are first, then letters). See Sorting Table Rows.
Splitting table cells You can turn one cell in a table into many smaller cells by splitting the cell. When you split a cell, you are essentially inserting a smaller table into that cell. See Splitting Table Cells.
Table cell properties You can change the properties for cells within a table. This includes changing the borders, text alignment, hyphenation, background, and more. See Editing Table Cell Properties.
Table properties You can adjust the table properties for a specific table, such as changing the number of rows and columns, borders, and auto-width. See Editing Table Properties.

You can use any or all of these methods. However, using styles whenever possible is always recommended.

Best Practice: Style sheets are the best way to control the look of your content. See Best Practice—Using External Style Sheets Instead of Local Formatting .