Working with Rows and Columns

To select a column or columns, move the pointer to the top edge of the table, and your pointer becomes an arrow shape. Click to select the entire column. To select a row, move your pointer to the left edge of the table and click to select the row. Alternatively, you can click inside a table and choose Table > Select > Column or Row.

To specifically select Header, Body, or Footer rows, click inside the table and choose Table > Select > Header Rows, Body Rows, or Footer Rows.

Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns

You can insert rows and columns using the menu options, or, if you want to be flash, on the fly by dragging while holding down Option (Alt) as you drag a row or column border. In addition, you can also create a new row by pressing Tab when the insertion point is in the last cell of the table.

To delete all or selected parts of your table, choose Table > Delete > Row, Column, or Table.

To delete cell contents without deleting cells, select the cells containing the text you want to delete and press Backspace or Delete.

Note

When adding columns, if you drag more than one and one-half times the width of the column being dragged, new columns with the same width as the original column are added.

Figure 12.22. Inserting Rows and Columns

Resizing Rows and Columns

To resize rows and columns, drag the row or column border to change the row height or column width. To keep the table at the same size, hold Shift while you drag. This affects only two rows (or two columns) at onceone row or column gets bigger while the other gets smaller. To resize all the rows and columns proportionally, hold Shift while dragging the bottom table edge or the right table edge respectively.

To resize the whole table, position the pointer over the lower right corner of the table so that the pointer becomes an arrow, and then drag to increase or decrease the table size. To maintain the table's height and width proportions, hold Shift. Note, this doesn't work if your table spans more than one frame.

Changing Row Height

Choosing At Least specifies a minimum row height that will grow as you add text or increase the point size of the text you already have. If you copy or Place a graphic into the table cell, the row height will grow to accommodate the graphic. But the column width will not. With an overset graphic you can either choose to Clip Contents to Cell to crop the graphic to the table cell width or adjust the column width to fit the graphic.

Tip

Choosing Exactly from the Control palette or Table palette sets a fixed row height. Fixed row heights don't grow when you add text, and a small red dot will appear in the lower right corner of the cell if it is overset. With an overset cell you have two options: Make the content smaller or the table cell bigger.

Distributing Rows or Columns Evenly

If you want your selected rows or columns to have a uniform height or width, choose Table > Distribute Rows Evenly or Distribute Columns Evenly.

Figure 12.23. Clip Contents to Cell.

Figure 12.24. Distribute Columns Evenly.