Formatting Tables
Use a table when a template or note needs information arranged in rows and columns. Astalty's text editor lets you add rows and columns, shade cells, align text, merge or split cells, and mark header rows and columns.
Overview
Table controls are available in Astalty's full text editor. You will see this editor when you write the content of a Document Template, edit a generated document before finalising it, write a note, or write a Resource. Two toolbar buttons control tables:
- Insert table adds a table while your cursor is outside one. It changes to Table options while your cursor is inside a table.
- Cell formatting, shown with a paint bucket icon, controls text alignment and cell fill. It appears only while your cursor is inside a table.
Shorter fields, including comments, email messages, and alerts, use a smaller editor without table controls.
Adding a Table
- Put your cursor where the table should sit.
- Select Insert table in the toolbar.
- Move across the grid to size the table, then select to insert it.
You can insert up to five rows and five columns. Astalty creates the first row as a header row. Use Table options to add more rows or columns, and drag a cell border sideways to change a column's width.
Table Options
With your cursor inside a table, the table icon opens the structural options.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Insert Above | Adds a row above the row your cursor is in |
| Insert Below | Adds a row below the row your cursor is in |
| Delete Row | Removes the row your cursor is in |
| Insert Left | Adds a column to the left of the column your cursor is in |
| Insert Right | Adds a column to the right of the column your cursor is in |
| Delete Column | Removes the column your cursor is in |
| Merge Cells | Combines the cells you have selected into one |
| Split Cell | Breaks a merged cell back into separate cells |
| Header Row | Turns the first row of the table into a header row, or back into an ordinary row |
| Header Column | Turns the first column of the table into a header column, or back into an ordinary column |
| Delete Table | Removes the whole table |
Astalty disables an option when it cannot be used for the current selection. Merge Cells needs more than one selected cell. Split Cell works only on a cell that was merged earlier.
To work with more than one cell at a time, select inside the first cell and drag across the rest.
Shading Cells and Aligning Text
The paint bucket icon opens Text alignment and Cell fill for the cells you have selected.
- Select the cell you want to change, or drag across several cells.
- Select the paint bucket icon in the toolbar.
- Under Text alignment, choose left, centre or right.
- Under Cell fill, choose one of the colours.
Cell fill offers grey, yellow, orange, red, green, blue, and purple. Select the + swatch to choose a custom colour, or select No fill to remove the shading.
Both settings apply to every cell in your selection, so a whole header row can be shaded in one go.
Things to Keep in Mind
- Shading and alignment save with the content, so they carry through to the PDF generated from a Document Template as well as to the note or Resource on screen.
- Tables pasted from Excel or Word keep their cell shading. Review older templates that contain pasted tables before using them, because shading that an older editor discarded may appear when you reopen the template.
- Merge Cells keeps the fill from the top-left cell of your selection and discards the others.
- Split Cell copies the merged cell's fill to every cell it produces, so clear any fill you do not want afterwards.