SOS with Table handling on mac

I have two problems with table handling on mac.

  1. How to merge vertically adjacent cells?
    I have found out myself how to merge horizontally adjacent cells even if this is not mentioned in the manual. However, how to merge vertically adjacent cells? It seems no way to select vertically adjacent cells.

  2. How to specify the width of the whole table?
    I know how to adjust the width of each column in a table. However, I want enlarge the width of the whole table. How to do it?

Thanks!

  1. Use Cmd-click to create non-linear selections. You need to select text from two different points at once, without selecting any text in between those points. Note that your selection only needs to be located within two cells for the merge button to light up. If there are multiple lines in a cell, don’t worry about selecting the whole thing, Just select a word or two from the first cell, let go, hold down Command to expand the selection and select a bit in the other cell above or below it.
  2. You should be able to just click and drag the column lines around to bring the overall width down. The mouse pointer will change to a double-sided arrow when you’re over the right spot.

Thanks again AmverV! You’re my superman! Always come in time where there is a need :slight_smile:

  1. I’ve tried it out, non-linear selection can be made via CMD+Double-click.
  2. I tried. It works when the table is simple. But in my table, it doesn’t work. When I tried to drag it to the right. The only effect is the width of the most right column gets enlarged by squeezing the space for other columns.

Oh I see, you’re looking for a way to proportionally scale every row/column with a universal dragger? I’m not aware of anything like that, you just have to pull the right side to where it should be, and then fix the relative widths of the interior columns yourself.

Hi AmberV,

Sorry for not describing my problem clearly! My problem is that I tried your way for increasing the width of the whole table, but it does not work. It works for some simple tables, but not for my big table. When I do what you said, the width of the most right gets increased by taking space from other columns. The width of the whole table remains the same.

For example, before dragging it:

|----------|----------|----------|

After dragging it:

|-----|-----|--------------------|

Can you make your window wider? Maybe temporarily hide the Binder and turn off fixed width or page view modes. If you try to size a table larger than the view it will just compress the other columns. Nothing we can do about that unfortunately.