HOW TO: Create, Draw, and Work with Custom Tables With FrontPage 2000 (300244)

SUMMARY

This article describes how to create, draw, and work with tables in Microsoft FrontPage 2000.

Tables are used to display information, and lay out text and graphics on Web pages. You can use any of the following methods to create a table in FrontPage:

• Create a simple table.
• Draw a table.
• Create a table by specifying table properties.
• Convert text to a table.

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Create a Simple Table

You can create a simple table by specifying the number of rows and columns that you want. Default properties are used for the table. To create a simple table, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that FrontPage is in Page view. If it is not, click Page on the View menu.
2. Click where you want to insert the table.
3. On the standard toolbar, click Insert Table, and then drag down and to the right until the number of rows and columns that you want in the table is displayed.

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Draw a Table

You can create a table by using the Draw Table tool. You draw the outline of the table, and then draw the table cells, rather than specify the number of rows and columns. You can create a complex table with different-sized cells and varying numbers of columns and rows. Using this method, you can specify the exact positioning of text and graphics on your Web pages. To draw a table, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that FrontPage is in Page view. If it is not, click Page on the View menu.
2. On the Table menu, click Draw Table.
   
   The Tables toolbar is displayed and the Draw Table tool is selected.
3. On your Web page, draw the outside border of the table by dragging from the upper-left corner to the lower-right corner of the table.
4. To create cells, draw vertical and horizontal lines in the table.
5. To remove lines that you do not want, click Eraser on the Tables toolbar, and then drag the eraser across the unwanted line. When the unwanted line turns red, release the mouse button.
6. When you have finished drawing your table, click Draw Table on the Tables toolbar to turn off the Draw Table tool.

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Create a Table by Specifying Its Properties

When you create a table, you can also specify its properties, such as the number of rows and columns, its size and alignment, the table width, border thickness, and cell padding and spacing. To create a table and set its properties, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that FrontPage is in Page view. If it is not, click Page on the View menu.
2. Click where you want to insert the table.
3. On the Table menu, point to Insert, and then click Table.
4. In the Rows box, specify the number of rows that you want.
5. In the Columns box, specify the number of columns that you want.
6. In the Alignment box, select the position for the table on the page.
7. In the Border size box, specify the width that you want for the table border in pixels. If you do not want a border, type 0.
8. To change the table's cell padding (the space between a cell's border and content), specify a number in the Cell padding box.
9. To change the table's cell spacing (the space between cells), specify a number in the Cell spacing box.
10. To change the table's width, click to select the Specify width check box, and then do one of the following:
11. Click In pixels, and then type the width that you want the table to be in pixels.
    
    
12. Click In percent, and then type a percentage of the screen width you want the table to be. If the table is to appear in a frame, specify a percentage of the frame width.
    
13. Click OK.

NOTE: The properties that you specify for the new table are used as the default properties the next time you create a table.

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Convert Text to a Table

You can convert text to a table if the text is delimited. Text is delimited when it contains separator characters that indicate where to divide text into rows and columns.

If your text is not delimited, type separator characters where you want to divide text into rows and columns. For example, use paragraph marks to mark the ends of rows and use commas to divide columns.

NOTE: Because HTML does not directly support tab characters, it is recommended that you not use tab characters as your text delimiter.

In this example, the following text

Day, Time, City
Friday, 12:00 pm, San Francisco
				

is converted to the following table:

Day	Time	City
Friday	12:00 pm	San Francisco

To convert text to a table, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that FrontPage is in Page view. If it is not, click Page on the View menu.
2. Select the delimited text that you want to convert to a table.
3. On the Table menu, point to Convert, and then click Text to Table.
4. In the Convert Text to Table dialog box, click the column separator that you used, or click None to create a one-celled table. Click OK.

After you have created a table, FrontPage offers many options to further customize the appearance of your table. You can control how the table appears on a Web page by setting the table layout, modifying the appearance of table cells, rows and columns, inserting table captions and table headers, formatting borders, and setting background colors and pictures.

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