I created a table with 2 columns and multiple rows - around 6. I moved the column divider towards the left - reducing the width of the left most column and increasing the width of the right column.
For most rows, I have a very short blurb in the left column and I have a longer phrase or sentence in the right column that only takes up a single line. Everything works fine in these instances.
When I write a lot in the right column - where I create 5 or more lines within a single cell, the table margin shrinks in that particular cell.
To attempt to illustrate (pretend you’re looking at a single row):
| abc | Here I write lots of stuff that refers to abc.
| abc | Here I write lots of stuff that refers to abc.
| abc | Here I write lots of stuff that refers to abc.
| abc | Here I write lots of stuff that refers to abc.
| abc | Here I write lots of stuff that refers to abc.
| abc | Here I write lots of stuff
| abc | that refers to abc.
| abc | Here I write lots of stuff
| abc | that refers to abc.
In order for the right table margin within a cell to screw up, I may have to end a sentence and press enter to start a new line within that table cell. It isn’t clear to me what specifically causes the right cell margin to shrink.
I’m afraid that Apple’s table code is rudimentary at best. Scrivener uses Apple’s table code. If you want refined (AKA more than ‘one | two | three’) tables, it’s best left to the final polishing stage in your favorite gargantuan word processor. In the meantime you can post a polite but seething request to Apple to improve their text editing functions.
I agree with dafu. I create tables in Nisus Writer Pro and link them as document or project references. I paste the NWP tables into Scrivener as place holders but don’t try to edit them there, and I replace them with the “real” tables after exporting to NWP.
OK, it’s no bug that tables don’t work properly in Scrivener, which means my desire for properly functioning tables gets relegated to the lower end of the wish list pile.
I simply wanted to view some material that will permanently reside in Scrivener in table format. For that, I’d rather not deal with opening up a separate word processing program. For the moment, I can tolerate the blemishes caused by the current table behavior.
Thanks again for sharing how you compensate for Apple’s currently lousy table code.
Yes, as the other say, this is Apple’s lousy table code in the text system - you can see the same thing in TextEdit, which uses the same text engine. Nisus use the same text engine, too, but their team have modified it heavily so that it is much, much better than the underlying one. Unfortunately it’s a little beyond the scope of Scrivener right now to provide better tables, mainly because as a one-man team that would entail a great deal of work when there’s a lot more to do, and when Apple could fix it at any time (although it shows no sign of doing so, sadly).
