Working with Tables

A table is a set of cells arranged in rows and columns. The cells in a table are separated by gridlines. When you click on a table, the entire table is highlighted and its column headings and row headings are displayed on the top and left side respectively. These headings help in identifying cells in the table and manipulating the table.

When you select a table, eight edit handles appear between the row or column headings and the table's outer borders. Four edit handles appear in the four centers and four appear on the edges of table. The edit handles in the center of the table allow you to resize either the rows or the columns. Whereas, the edit handles at the corners allow you to resize entire table.

You can lock the size of a table so it cannot be manipulated manually. You can do so by selecting the table and in the Formatting section of the Properties pane, and setting Size Lock to True. This will lock the table and you will not be able to adjust its size by using the edit handles.

A triangular Add Table Break handle also displays when you select a table. It allows you to break the table horizontally.

Selecting a table opens the Table Tools > Layout contextual tab in the ribbon. You can perform various operations on the table from the contextual tab.

Row and Column Types

In a table, you can set the following types of rows:
  • Title
  • Header
  • Body
  • Footer

By default, all table rows are of type Body. You can assign other types to the rows from the Properties dialog. You can also assign different text styles to each row type. If you break a table, the title, header, and footer rows can be repeated in each table.

You can assign different text styles to the first and last columns of a table. This can be done from the First Column and Last Column settings in the Properties dialog.

Selecting Rows, Columns, and Cells of a Table

Following are the selection methods to select rows, columns, and cells of a table:
  • To select a cell
    1. Click the table to select the table.
    2. Click the cell that you want to select.
    Once you select a table, you can also use the Up, Down, Left, or Right arrow keys, or the tab key to select and navigate across the cells.
    Figure 1. Selecting a cell in a Table
  • To select multiple cells
    1. Click the table to select the table.
    2. Click the first cell that you want select.
    3. Press Ctrl and select the next cell.
    4. Repeat step 3 to select more cells.
    Figure 2. Selecting Multiple Cells in a Table
    To select multiple consecutive cells, press Shift and then select the first and the last cell. All the cells within the first and last cell are selected.

    You can also select a table and then drag the pointer over the cells that you want to select.

  • To select a row or column
    1. Click the table to select the table. The row and column headings display.
    2. Click the desired row or column number in row or column heading respectively.
      Figure 3. Selecting a Row or a Column in a Table
  • To select multiple rows or columns
    1. Click the table to select the table. The row and column headings display.
    2. Click the desired row or column number in row or column heading respectively.
    3. Press Ctrl and select the next row or column number in the row or column heading respectively.
    4. Repeat step 3 to select more rows or columns.
    Figure 4. Selecting Multiple Rows or Columns in a Table
    To select multiple consecutive rows or columns, press Shift and then select the first and the last row or column heading. All rows or columns between the first and last row or column are selected.

    You can also select a table and then drag the pointer over the row or column headings to select the respective rows and columns.

Adding Rows and Columns

You can add rows by selecting the Insert Above and Insert Below tools and add columns by selecting the Insert Left and Insert Right tools. These tools can be accessed from the Table Tools > Layout contextual tab or from the right-click pop-up menu of the table's cell, row, column, row heading, or column heading.

Copy and Paste Rows and Columns

You can copy the entire selected row(s) or column(s) and paste it next to another row or column.

  1. Select the Row/Column to be copied.
  2. Select Copy Columns/Rows in the right click menu.
  3. Select the column you wish to paste the copied column next to and in the right click menu, select Insert Copied Columns > Left/Right.
  4. The copied column is displayed next to the selected column in the table.

Resizing Rows and Columns

There are different ways to change the row and column sizes in a table:
  1. Manual - There are three ways to manually resize the row and columns of a table:
    1. Select the table. Drag the gridline and enter a data point. The row or column is resized accordingly.
    2. Select the table. Then select the desired row or column and in the Table Tools > Layout contextual tab's Cell Size group enter desired values in the Height and Width fields respectively. Height changes the row height and Width changes the column width.
    3. Select the table and drag the edit handles to resize.
  2. Using Distribute tools in the ribbon - The Distribute Rows and Distribute Columns tools in the Table Tools > Layout contextual tab's Cell Size group adjust the row height and column width respectively, without changing the overall size of the table.
  3. Fit to Contents - When you right-click a row or column heading, you get the option Fit to Row Contents and Fit to Column Contents respectively. These options resize the rows or columns to fit to the content in respective row or column.
In the Properties dialog, the Height Lock and Width Lock properties allow you to lock the height and width of rows and columns respectively. These properties control the automatic resizing behavior. For example, if the text in the table cell is very long, there are two behaviors depending on the Width Lock setting:
  1. Width Lock set to True - The column width stays constant and the text is word-wrapped.
  2. Width Lock set to False - The column width gets larger to accommodate a long line of text.

By default, Width Lock is set to True and Height Lock is set to False. Manually setting width or height sets the respective property to True. Using the Fit to Contents options set the respective property to False.

(Technology Preview) Summary Row in Tables

There are 3 different ways to define the Summary Row in Tables:

To add Summary Row from the Layout Tab
  1. Select the Table.
  2. Select the Summary Row in the Table Options from the Layout contextual tab.
  3. You can also check the row type in Properties Dialog, Formatting section.
OR
To add a summary row from Reports
  1. Select the Report Definition in the Reports Dialog (Drawing > Analyze > Reports)
  2. Define the method from the Sum drop-down menu. Refer Summarize Information in Report
  3. Select Place Table from Reports. The table will be placed.
  4. The selected Table will have rows such as title, body, summary. Select the particular row to view its row type in the Properties Dialog, Formatting section.
  5. To disable the Totals row, set configuration variable, MS_REPORTTABLE_HIDETOTALSLABEL. The table will be placed without the Totals row.
OR
To define Summary Row in the Seed File
  1. If the Summary Row is defined in the Table template of the Seed file/DGN library file, the newly placed table from report will have the pre-defined settings of the template.

Removing Rows and Columns

You can delete rows and columns by selecting the Delete Row and Delete Column tools respectively. These tools can be accessed from the Table Tools > Layout contextual tab or from the right-click pop-up menu of the table's cell, row, or column.

Breaking Tables

You can break or split a table into two or more tables using the table break settings. When you select a table, the Add Table Break handle appears at the bottom of the table. Selecting and dragging the handle allows you to break the table.

Right-clicking a table and selecting Properties opens the Properties dialog. You can also add table breaks using the settings in the Breaks section in the Properties dialog. Following settings are provided in the Breaks section of the Properties dialog:
  • Break Type - Sets the way in which you want to break the table:
    • None - Does not break the table.
    • Horizontal - Splits the rows into two or more tables.
  • Break Height - Sets the height at which the table should be split.
  • Repeat Headers - If set to Yes, repeats the title and header on each table.
  • Repeat Footers - If set to Yes, repeats the footer on each table.
  • Sub Table Position - Sets the position where the split table will be placed with respect to the original table. Options are Right, Left, Above, Below, and Manual.
  • Sub Table Spacing - Sets the spacing between the split table and the original table.
For example, in the following table, there is a title row, a header row, few body rows, and a footer row.
You can break the above table into two tables as shown below. As per the break settings mentioned in the caption below, the footer row is available in both the tables and the row heading for the footer row remains the same. After breaking the table, the Adjust Sub Table Position handle on the top-left side of the selected sub table. You can select and drag this handle to adjust the gap between the tables.
Figure 5. Break Settings: Break Type - Horizontal, Repeat Headers - No, Repeat Footers - Yes, Sub Table Position - Right

Changing the Color and Weight of Text Inside the Table

By default, the text inside a table takes the color and weight of the active level. You can override the color and weight of all the text inside the table using the Default Text Color and Default Text Weight properties in the Text Styles section of the Properties dialog. Note that the text weight does not affect TrueType fonts.

To change the color of text inside a particular cell of a table, double-click the text to open the Text Editor window. Then select the text in the Text Editor window and change the color from the color drop-down.