TIP 57: Styling Tables

Importing, sorting, and rearranging table data in GoLive helps you organize the content, but styling the rows and columns helps give the data the visual clarity you need to communicate effectively.Select a table, open the Table & Boxes palette from the Window menu, and switch to the Table Style tab of the palette (Figure 57).

Figure 57. The Table Style section of the palette gives you all the tools you need to style your tables.

Sharing Table Styles

If you create table styles you want to share with others, select Export Table Styles from the flyout menu in the Table & Boxes palette. The table styles are saved as an XML file that you can share with others. To import table styles from another GoLive user, choose Import Table Styles from the flyout menu in the Table & Boxes palette. This is an easy way to ensure visual consistency when you have several designers contributing to the same project.

Bonus Tip

Experiment with the blue borders on the top and left edge of the table style preview in the Table & Boxes palette. This will affect how frequently the pattern repeats and will be most obvious when applied to larger tables.

To style a table selected in the Layout Editor, select a table style from the pull-down menu and click Apply. If the table style doesn't look like you expected, click the Clear button in the palette and try a different style.

The default table styles give you a place to start, but you'll probably want to design your own. You can apply formatting to a tableincluding font, font size, font color, table color, row color, cell color, borders, padding, spacing, and alignmentand click the Create new table style icon at the bottom of the palette. Give the new table style a name and click OK. Now you can use the same style in other pages and other sites and guarantee visual consistency.

If you make some changes to a table and want to update the table style, select the table in the Layout Editor, the table style in the Table & Boxes palette, and click the Capture icon at the bottom of the palette. This updates the existing table style instead of creating a new one.

To rename a table style, select it in the pull-down menu, click the Rename icon , and give it a new name. If there are table styles you know you'll never use, you can select them in the Table & Boxes palette and click the Delete icon to permanently delete them.