The menu Table is also only available when a table is selected on the sheet.
Like the Text menu it offers lots of setting options for tables. You can add or remove columns and rows to and from a table, edit the grouping, add or remove header and footer. You can also add or remove a background image from the table.
The menu item Cell refers to table cells and controls Background images and Background color as well as the cell border.
The menu item Cell border is only available if at least one cell in the table is filled with content, though.
Attention: The command Cell border refers only to table cells currently existing in the table, not to the table itself. It places a border around all elements, which are contained in the cell at the moment of using the command. Elements added to the table later will not automatically have a cell border.
Row contains subcommands to add rows before or after the currently selected row or delete the currently selected row. It also offers the possibility to link table rows together so that they will not be separated if the table extends over more than one page: Keep with previous/Keep with next row. All Keep with functions work only if information cannot be placed to one page completely, and a part of it will be moved to the next page.
If you want to link information together, you’ll also need to specify how it should be kept together. So if the part of the content which needs to be moved to the next page cannot be split, you can specify your suggestions for the XSL-FO engine; it will try to keep the entire data block together; this is checking a data block whether your data can be divided or not.
Keep within line has the effect that your data (XSL-FO block or table row) is tried to be kept at one page. For example, if you place two elements in one table cell, the line function scope suggests that the data can be divided only between two blocks (if possible).
Keep within column means that rows linked together will not be split referring to the columns they build a block in.
Example: A table contains information for products, which belong together as a block and should not be separated:
Each "block" consists of two rows and also two columns of the table.
Depending on the contents, the table may extend over more than one page and some "blocks" may be split:
This effect is avoided with the command Keep within column:
Keep within page means that both table rows (this and previous/next) will be kept at the same page (if possible), and splitting will be initiated between groups of rows.
If you want a row not to adapt to its content but to constantly have the same height, use the function Fixed row height.
It is possible to assign a Background color or a Background image to the selected row. The color can be selected via the color selection window and be set back to the default color with the command Revert to default. The image is selected via the file browser and is placed inside the table row, extending over all table cells and it is resized with the size of the cells. Delete the background image with the command Remove.
Column contains subcommands to add columns before or after the currently selected columns or delete the currently selected column.
If the table should have header and footer, assign them to the table with the commands Table header and Table footer. These can be filled with elements as well.
Tables usually refer to a specified XML node (and the contents contained in that node) and should be linked to it with the command Grouping. On click it opens the XML structure window where you can select the correct node from the XML tree:
The check box Auto XPath completion completes the entire path from the top of the XML tree to the node you selected automatically. If you do not need this function, (e.g. to create a template inside a table which refers to a single node), simply uncheck the check box.
The function Relative nested grouping allows you to have different groupings for rows in tables in an easy way. It is described in more detail in the chapter Tables.
Conditional region (XSL:IF instead of XSL:FO) tests whether the selected node or expression exists. This is also described in more detail in the chapter Tables.
Select the desired node and confirm with "OK". The grouping has the effect that dynamic elements placed in it will automatically refer to nodes subordinate to the selected node.
The tabs Filtering and Group by Content are described in a later chapter.
With Background image you assign or remove a background image to the entire table. Background color specifies a color for the table which can be set back to default with Back to default.