Editing a Table in Standard View
After you've designed your layout in Layout View, return to Standard View to add content. You can edit your layout table in Standard View by changing the attributes of the table and its cells. You will also need to set the alignment of the contents of the cells.
Merging and Splitting Table Cells
You may want some rows or columns in your table to have fewer cells than other rows. For example, you may want the top row of a table to have a title that is centered over all the columns. How do you accomplish that?
You can increase or decrease the column and row spans by either splitting or merging cells. To merge an entire row so it appears as one cell, select the row and click the Merge button, as shown in Figure 12.7. Now the content of the entire row can be positioned over all the columns. You can also right-click (Control-click on the Mac) anywhere on the row and select the Merge Cells command from the Table submenu of the context menu.
Figure 12.7 The Merge button appears in the Property inspector when an entire row is selected. This button causes all the selected cells to appear as one cell.
Use the Split Cell command to add additional rows or columns to a cell. The Split button is beside the Merge button in the Property inspector. Select the Split button and the Split Cell dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 12.8. Enter the number of rows or columns you would like the cell to be split into and click OK. Now a single cell is split into multiple cells. You can also right-click in the cell and select the Split Cell command from the Table submenu of the Context menu.
Figure 12.8 The Split Cell dialog box enables you to split a single cell into multiple columns or rows.
Aligning Table Cell Contents
The vertical alignment drop-down menu (see Figure 12.9) sets the alignment for the contents of an individual cell or a group of cells. Align the contents of a cell or a group of cells verticallyfrom top to bottom. When setting the vertical alignment, you have the following options:
Default is usually the same as middle alignment of the cell contents.
Top aligns the cell contents at the top of the cell.
Middle aligns the cell contents in the middle of the cell.
Bottom aligns the cell contents at the bottom of the cell.
Baseline is applied to multiple cells in a row, aligning the bottom of the objects across all cells. For instance, if you have very large text in the first cell and small text in the second cell, the bottom of both lines of text will be aligned with baseline vertical alignment.
Figure 12.9 The vertical alignment drop-down menu aligns cell contents vertically from the top and the bottom of the cell.
Align the contents of a cell or a group of cells horizontallyfrom left to rightwith the Horizontal Alignment drop-down menu shown in Figure 12.10. When setting the horizontal alignment, you have the following options:
Default usually is the same as left for cell content and center for header cell content.
Left aligns the cell contents on the left of the cell.
Center aligns the cell contents in the center of the cell.
Right aligns the cell contents on the right of the cell.
Figure 12.10 The Horizontal Alignment drop-down menu aligns cell contents horizontally from the left and the right sides of the cell.