Creating tables is easy with FrontPage Express. You have one of two options. You can either go up to “Table” on the menu bar and select “Insert Table…” or you can click on the icon between what appears to be a small robot and a picture of a mountain range. If you aren’t sure, just do a mouse-over on the buttons and see which one displays “Insert Table”.
With the first option (creating a table from the menu bar), a dialog box will appear, similar to the one shown below.
As you can see, you have a variety of options to choose from. The following breakdown of your choices will help you create a table you want:
- Rows are the horizontal groupings of cells. In a 4 by 3 table, for example, the number 4 is the amount of rows.
- Columns are vertical groupings of cells. In a 4 by 3 table, for example, the number 3 is the amount of columns.
- Alignment is where you want your table to appear on screen. You can select from left, center, or right alignments.
- Border size is the pixel area around your cells and is normally set to either 1 or 2 pixels.
- Cell spacing is the amount of pixels between cells. Usually 1 or 2 pixels will be fine for standard tables.
- Cell padding is the pixel space within cells. Again, 1 or 2 pixels will be fine for this option.
- Table width is the span in which your table will look in someone’s Web browser. You can either set an exact amount in pixels or a percent span.
Under special conditions, you may want to set a table’s height dimension. To do this, click on the “Extended…” button. From here, click on “Add…” and another dialog box will appear titled “Name/Value Pair”. In the name field, type in “height” and type in your table height dimension in the value field. Remember, to specify an exact pixel space amount, simply enter a number. To specify a percent, type in a number from 1-100 followed by the percent (%) sign.
Possibly the easiest method to create a table, if you just want to input a few rows and columns would be to draw one out. If you have a large number of rows and columns to input, it may be easier to go to the table dialog box and input the specific number of rows and columns you require.
You can always go back and change something by right-clicking on your table and selecting “Table Properties…”
Tables are generally used to organize large amounts of data or to align various page elements more precisely. Tables can also be used for more creative approaches, such as creating a 1 by 1 table to designate the span of paragraph text rather than allowing your text to span 100% across the screen. Although this can be the desired effect, some designers prefer a small margin between the left and right sides of the screen to present their information more attractively.