Text and graphics in tables

Place the insertion point in a table cell

Click in the cell, or click to the left of the cell’s text snippet in the Structure View.

Select the contents of a cell

Click in the cell and press Esc t h a, or double-click the cell’s bubble in the Structure View. You can also triple-click a cell’s contents if it contains just one paragraph.

Select a single cell

• Control-click the cell.

• (Structured documents) Drag across the cell’s boundary and back, or click the cell’s bubble in the Structure View.

Select multiple cells

• Drag across all the cells, and then Shift-double-click or Shift-click (structured documents) the last cell in the selection.

• To select an entire row, press Esc t h r, or drag across the cells in the row, or click the row’s bubble in the Structure View.

  Tip: If you click between table-part elements (such as between two rows) in the Structure View, the insertion point appears in the Structure View but not in the document window. A contiguous selection of cells in the document window doesn’t always appear as contiguous bubbles in the Structure View.

• To select an entire column, press Esc t h c, or drag from a heading cell into the first body cell.

• To select the entire table, press Esc t h t.

Add continuation text to a selected table

1. On the first page of the table, click in the title or in the heading or footing where you want to insert the variable or variable element.

2. Do one of the following:

   • Double-click either the Table Continuation variable or the Table Sheet variable from the Variables pod.

   • (Structured documents) Select a variable element for continuation text in the Elements catalog, and click Insert.

   On the first page of the table, the variable appears as a non-breaking space . On subsequent pages, the variable displays its text—for example, (continued).

Add continuation text to multiple tables in a document

1. To include a table continuation and sheet variable to multiple tables in the current document, choose Table > Insert Table Variables.

2. In the Table Variables dialog, choose the table variable type (continuation or sheet) to insert.

Alternatively, select a table format to insert the table variables to all tables in the current document of the selected format.

Place a graphic

You can adapt these instructions to position the anchored frame differently or to insert a graphic in a cell that also contains text.

1. Click in a paragraph in the cell where you want to place the graphic.

2. Do one of the following:

   • To create an anchored frame where you can draw, use Insert > Anchored Frame to create an anchored frame that’s anchored at the insertion point.

   • To create an anchored frame for an imported graphic, use File > Import > File or Insert > Image to import the graphic.

3. If the anchored frame is wider than the cell, resize the column.

   Tip: To resize a column to match its contents, place the insertion point in the cell that has the desired length of text and press Esc t w.

4. If necessary, choose Graphics > Arrange > Align to center the graphic in the frame.

Place a graphic in a structured document

If your table cells allow graphic elements, you can draw or import graphics in the cells. A new graphic element can be either an empty anchored frame that you can draw in or an anchored frame with an imported graphic.

1. Click where you want to place the graphic in the cell.

2. Select a graphic element in the Elements catalog and click Insert. The element’s definition determines which dialog box appears.

3. Do one of the following:

   • If the Anchored Frame dialog box appears, choose At Insertion Point from the Anchoring Position pop-up menu, and click New Frame.

   • If the Import File dialog box appears, select the file to import, and click Import.

   An anchored frame appears in the cell, and a bubble with the text snippet <GRAPHIC> appears in the Structure View.

4. If the anchored frame is wider than the cell, resize the column.

   Tip: To resize a column to match its contents, select the column and press Esc t w.

5. If necessary, choose Graphics > Arrange > Align to center the graphic in the frame.

Convert text to a table

1. Select the text you want to convert.

2. Choose Table > Convert To Table.

3. If you’re working in a structured document, choose a table element from the Element Tag pop-up menu.

4. Select a format for the table.

   Note: In a structured document, the table element may have a format preselected, but you can change the format and it is not considered a format rule override.

5. Specify how you want to convert paragraphs by doing one of the following:

   • To convert text that uses tabs to separate information, click Tabs.

   • To convert text that uses spaces to separate information, click Spaces and then enter the minimum number of spaces that indicate a separate cell.

   • To convert text that uses other characters to separate information, click Other and then type the characters that can be used to separate cells.

   • To convert each paragraph (such as those in a bulleted list) to a cell, click A Cell and then enter the number of columns you want in the table.

6. In the Heading Rows box, enter the number of heading rows you want in the new table. If the paragraphs you’re converting don’t include headings and you want to fill in the headings later, select Leave Heading Rows Empty.

7. Click Convert.

Convert a text file to a table as you open the file

1. Choose File > Open, and select the text file you want to open.

2. If the Unknown File Type dialog box appears, select Text, and then click Convert.

3. Click Convert To Table, and then click Read.

4. Follow the instructions for converting text to a table, starting from step 3.

Convert a text file to a table as you import the file

1. Click where you want to import the file.

2. Choose File > Import > File, and select the text file you want to import and the import method.

3. Click Convert To Table and then click Import.

4. Follow the instructions for converting text to a table, starting from step 3.

Touch up a table after conversion

• To combine text that is split across two or more rows, cut and paste the text from the lower cells into the upper cell, and delete the extra rows.

  Tip: To quickly combine text in adjacent cells, select the cells, choose Table > Straddle, and then choose Table > Unstraddle. Then you can delete empty rows or columns.

• To fix half-empty columns, cut and paste the text into the correct locations, and delete the extra columns.

• To fix major errors, you can return to the original text (choose Edit > Undo if necessary), edit the text (for example, by deleting extra tabs and forced returns), and then convert the text to a table again.

Convert a table to text within FrameMaker

1. Click in the table you want to convert to text.

2. Choose Table > Convert To Paragraphs.

3. Click Row By Row or Column By Column, and click Convert.

Table converted to text

A. Row by row B. Column by column

Copy a table to another application as text

1. Copy the table to the clipboard.

2. In another application, choose Edit > Paste. The table is pasted, row by row, with tabs separating table cells, and a paragraph return at the end of each row.

Convert all tables in a document to text

Save the document in Text Only format, and specify how you want the tables converted.

Run text around a table in an anchored frame

1. Use Insert > Anchored Frame to create an anchored frame with an anchoring position of Run into Paragraph.

2. Draw a text frame in the anchored frame and then place the table in it.

Run text around a table in an anchored frame (structured documents)

1. Click in text where you want to anchor the table.

2. Select a graphic element for an empty anchored frame in the Elements catalog, and click Insert.

   You can also use Insert > Anchored Frame to insert an element. Choose a frame element from the Element Tag pop-up menu in the Anchored Frame pod.

3. Choose Run Into Paragraph from the Anchoring Position pop-up menu, set the width and height of the frame, and click New Frame. Try to set the size of the frame to be slightly larger than the size of the table.

4. Draw a text frame in the anchored frame. Choose View > Toolbars > Graphics Toolbar and click the Place A Text Frame tool. Drag to draw the frame, and click Set in the dialog box that appears.

5. Click in the text frame and use Table > Insert Table to insert an unstructured table.

Run text around a table that remains stationary on the page

1. Draw a text frame directly on a page and drag it where you want it. This type of text frame is not connected to the main flow.

2. Choose Graphics > Runaround Properties, click Run Around Bounding Box, and click Set.

3. Do one of the following:

   • For unstructured documents, insert a table in the text frame.

   • For structured documents, click in the text frame and choose Table > Insert Table.

Set default cell margins

1. Click in the table you want to change and choose Table > Format > Table Designer.

2. In the Basic properties of the Table Designer, enter the values for the top, bottom, left, and right margins in the Default Cell Margins area.

3. Click Apply.

Customize cell margins or text alignment

When you change cell margins or text alignment and later apply a different format to the table, the changes are not overwritten by the new table format’s default settings.

Because cell margins and text alignment are part of a paragraph format, they aren’t normally stored as part of the Table Catalog format. However, the paragraph formats of the first title paragraph and the first paragraph in the heading, body, and footing rows of each column are stored. You can customize the alignment of any of these paragraphs and then store the table format in the catalog. Future tables using that table format will have the custom settings as their defaults.

Customize cell margins

1. Click in the first paragraph of the cell whose margins you want to customize.

2. Choose Format > Paragraphs > Paragraph Designer to display the Paragraph Designer.

3. Choose Table Cell from the Properties pop-up menu.

4. In the Cell Margin area, specify the margins you want to customize by doing one of the following:

   • To create a margin relative to the default cell margin, choose From Table Format Plus from the pop-up menu and then enter a value.

   • To create a fixed margin measured from the edge of the cell, choose Custom from the pop-up menu and then enter a value.

5. Click Apply.

Customize the vertical alignment of text in a cell

1. Click in the cell you want to customize.

2. Choose Format > Paragraphs > Paragraph Designer to display the Paragraph Designer.

3. Choose Table Cell from the Properties pop-up menu and then choose Top, Middle, or Bottom from the Cell Vertical Alignment pop-up menu.

4. Click Apply.

Specify the direction of autonumbering in a table

When you insert a table, the table format determines the direction of autonumbering within cells—either across rows or down columns. This property also sets the direction of autonumbering for table footnotes.

1. Click in the table you want to change, and choose Table > Format > Table Designer.

2. In the Basic properties of the Table Designer, choose Row First or Column First from the Numbering pop-up menu.

3. Click Apply.