Working with cells and cell contents

You cannot delete a cell. However, you can clear the contents of the cell. This action changes the cell type to a Text object that is empty.

1. Select the cell. See To select a table, row, column, cell, or section.

2. Select Edit > Clear Contents.

You can combine two or more adjacent cells in the same row into a single cell. For example, you can merge several cells horizontally to create a table heading that spans several columns. You can only merge cells that are in the same row.

You cannot merge the data from two cells into one cell. You can only merge text. For example, if the header row is merged, the text is merged because these two cells are Text objects. However, if the body row is merged, and the cells are bound to items in the data source, only the left most cell is retained.

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A.

Before merging cells

B.

After merging cells, the header row text is merged, but the data for the body row only retains data from the left-most cell

It is a good idea to merge cells at the end of the process of designing a table because adding new columns or removing columns does not work the same if there is a merged cell in the table.

You can change the orientation in table cells so that the information is displayed vertically instead of horizontally.

Only cells can be rotated (not rows, columns, sections, or entire tables).

1. Select the cell. See To select a table, row, column, cell, or section.

2. In the Layout palette, select one of the rotation buttons.

3. Click the orientation you want. For example, the vertical text in the previous example is rotated 90°.

4. In the Paragraph palette, select the align option that works best for the cell. For example, the vertical text in the previous example is aligned right and aligned to the top.

   Note: If you rotate a field that users fill in, users will have to enter their data at the angle of rotation.

By default, all cells are set to text objects. Text objects present read-only text that users cannot edit. You can use text objects to do these tasks:

• Label an area in the form, such as headers in the table

• Provide instructions for filling the form

• Enhance the form

You can change the cell to any other type of object, such as a numeric field or text field. In this way, you could use a table to lay out an entire form.

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A cell can also be a button that submits data, executes a web service operation or database query, or emails data to someone.

A cell can even be a subform. A subform acts as a container for other objects, including fields, boilerplate objects, and other subforms. Subforms also help to position objects relative to each other and provide structure. If a cell is a subform, the cell can hold more than one object. For example, it can have two buttons.

When a cell becomes an object other than a Text object, it behaves differently in a cell than if it were in the form design on its own. For example, a Text Field object in a cell has the caption set to None.

Here are ways to change a cell to another object type; however, the results are different, depending on what is already in the cell and what you change it to:

• Use the Type list in the Cell tab of the Object palette.

• Drag an object from the Object Library palette into a cell.

Depending on what you select from the Type list or Object Library palette and what is in the cell, the new object replaces the existing object. If you change a cell to a subform, objects that existed in the cell already are wrapped in the subform. For example, if a text field already existed in the cell and you choose Subform from the Type list, the Text Field is wrapped in the subform. If a text field already existed in the cell and you choose Numeric Field from the Type list, the Numeric Field replaces the Text Field.

• Drag an existing object in the form design that is outside of the table into a cell. This method preserves the look of the object. For example, if you drag a formatted phone number field into a cell, the caption is retained along with the size of the field.

  If you click and drag a Subform object that is outside of the table into a cell, it replaces the contents of the cell.

  Note: If you change a cell to a text field, you can select the Allow Multiple Lines option in the Cell tab of the Object palette to show more than one line of text.