RH 8 new table styles

[MergeThis]

The borders and backgrounds appear in the Design Editor, but not in Preview or in WebHelp output. Unfortunately, my custom tables from X5 don't translate into RH 8.

I've tried creating new styles using each of the following methods:

* Styles and Formatting > Create New Style > Table Style (per RH 8 Help)

* Insert a RH 8 Style, save it to include it in the .css file, and then rename it and edit the values in the .css file

* Copy an .HTMTABLE file, and then rename it and edit the values (per RH 8 Help)

* Edit a default RH 8 without renaming it. Borders and backgrounds are retained, but fonts are not when you paste mutiple cells.

Creating new styles in the Gallery in X5 worked perfectly well. This table style "feature" is a regression, not a feature.


Leon

...and I just submitted a bug report.

[Peter Grainge]

Have you tried this (in a new project) ...

Insert a table using one of the supplied templates listed in the lower section. Pick anyone.

Go to Styles and Formatting and in the pod that opens select tables in the dropdown. Right click the table you selected and click Edit.

Take some Valium.

The table editor gives massive power but the price is it is tricky to figure it out. Basically select Whole Table, Odd Rows and Even Rows in turn and clear all existing formatting. For your borders first select Odd Rows and define bottom and right and for Even Rows define top and left, or similar. I may not have that quite right, not at a RH8 machine, but you'll see what happens and figure it out. Then apply one of those to Whole Tablle and you will have your borders. Now for Even and Odd rows apply the shading.

That said, I would have thought your old tables should still work. Want to send me a dummy project with one?

Styles are handled in a different way in RH8 in lists and tables. They are not automatically applied. See About RH8 on my site and go to the demo. Look at Tables and Lists. They now work in the same way as Dreamweaver and other HTML editors.

The table editor does allow you to define the font or you can select the cells and apply a style. No style is the default.

Same with lists, either apply a style or use the OL UL and LI tags to define the style. RH8 does not automatically apply Normal.

[MergeThis · Accepted solution]

The Valium helped, thanks...

I have good news, and I have bad news!

THE GOOD NEWS
I was finally able to create new HTMTABLE templates, as described in the RH 8 help, and actually use them!
--> C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Adobe\RoboHTML\8.00\Templates\Tables

THE BAD NEWS
The RH 8 developers decided that numbers and underscores were no longer valid for HTMTABLE template names as they were in X5 (see my old filenames below), AND decided to keep it a little secret! Thanks, guys!

So...after a HUGE amount of work trying to get RH to NOT ignore my new styles OR make them disappear, I decided to try a different naming convention from that of my old HTMTABLE templates:

1CRD_HEADER became AAHeader
1CRD_NOHEADER became ABNoHeader
2CRD_BLANK became ACBlank

...and, of course, that worked like a charm!

(The old and the new are named so that those styles always appear at the top of the "Table Templates" selection window.)

Musings:
* Peter, the individual left/top & bottom/right border settings for even/odd rows, as you suggested, did not give me what I needed. I had to setup all sides of every cell. (See the attached code from the AAHeader.HTMTABLE file.)

* In X5 (which forced you to use table templates mixed with character styles, I was able to assign a Table Subhead style (to any row I selected) that was identical to the Table Head style, except with a single term and all cells in the row being merged. This allowed me to group categories within the table, providing users with a good visual aid. The workaround in RH 8 is to place my cursor directly under a table to Insert another table; the Head of the new table (table.AAHeader tr.t1st td) serves as a pseudo "subhead," because the absence of space between the two tables gives the impression of a single table.

* (Non-style-related issue) Copying and pasting content from multiple cells to other cells or tables (why can't I Ctrl-drag these, as with a separate word only?) is unusual: sometimes RH will paste the content in the cells, left-to-right, top-to-bottom, sometimes RH will paste the content into newly added rows and/or columns (that is, it pastes the content AND the cells). Very inconsistent, and very frustrating!


Leon

[Peter Grainge]

I think your tables should have been prefixed RUBIK. :-)