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Issues and Questions Re. Tables in Publisher


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I am working on my first project in Publisher which is an attempt to create pages for a 2021 planner. I'm basing my design on an existing planner. Here is a picture of the design. I am working with the latest update on an IMac.

image.thumb.png.50f284e8703a13975d5a8c01943c57fe.png

 I ran into trouble with the righthand table. First, one of the lines on the table does not go all the way across the page, and I can't figure out how to fix this. My first thought was to select this row and delete it but I can't figure out how to do that. When I watched the tutorial video about working with tables, the video said that when you select the table there will be row and column headers you can click to select a row or column. But that doesn't seem to be the case in the latest version of Publisher, which I'm using. So I don't know how to delete this row. If I can't delete it, then I'd like to figure out how to extend the line across the full width of the page.

With the table tool selected, when I click on the righthand table, most of the time the tool seems to draw another table instead of allowing for a selection. Sometimes this doesn't happen and I am able to select a row or column. But  even if I can select it, I'm not able to delete it. When I couldn't do delete this row, I made a copy of my file with the thought of selecting the entire table and then deleting it. My plan at that point was to redraw  the table. But I also can't figure out any way to delete the entire table.

The second problem occurs when I try to change the colors of the narrow columns on the righthand side of the page.  No matter how many times I select these columns (when I'm even able to do so), and change the color to 5% black, the color never changes. You can see that the first two shaded columns are lighter than the last two because of my inability to make a change. 

M third question has to do with the functions in Publisher. I used the Page Number function to insert a number next to the Week text on the lefthand side. But I can't seem to find a function that will automatically insert a date below the days of the week. What I'd like to be able to do is to automatically populate the dates throughout the planner by inserting a function on the master page similar to what I did by using the Page Number function after Week. Is this possible?

It seems like there are issues in tables in Publisher. I did a lot of searching for solutions to my problems and read that others were experiencing similar issues. I'd welcome advice about how to solve these problems without having to start over completely. I'm attaching a copy of my file to this post. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Planner V2 copy.afpub

Affinity Photo, V 2.3.1    Affinity Designer, V 2.2 Affinity Publisher, V 2.3.1

Mac Book Air, Sonoma, 14.2.1

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28 minutes ago, DianeF said:

First, one of the lines on the table does not go all the way across the page, and I can't figure out how to fix this.

The colour of the upper border of the lower cell has been set to white, so you can't see it against the white background:

 

1359253380_Screenshot2020-11-08at17_01_21.thumb.png.2b346dcff5a5cf1f203adc5f3131fbb4.png

 

Information from the Table panel (View-Studio-Table).]

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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34 minutes ago, DianeF said:

You can see that the first two shaded columns are lighter than the last two

I believe it's an optical illusion due to the absence of vertical rules around those cells. Again, change the border colour from white to black and the fill looks pretty much the same:

1617941035_Screenshot2020-11-08at17_08_52.png.69c18f29586aa0eb730e38fe9a4121e0.png

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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36 minutes ago, DianeF said:

What I'd like to be able to do is to automatically populate the dates throughout the planner by inserting a function on the master page similar to what I did by using the Page Number function after Week. Is this possible?

I don't think so, no. You could use other software (Excel, or Numbers on MacOS) to generate the tables and import them

 

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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49 minutes ago, DianeF said:

The second problem occurs when I try to change the colors of the narrow columns on the righthand side of the page.  No matter how many times I select these columns (when I'm even able to do so), and change the color to 5% black, the color never changes. You can see that the first two shaded columns are lighter than the last two because of my inability to make a change. 

The fill colour is again set in the Stroke and Fill section of theTable panel:

1805501040_Screenshot2020-11-08at17_23_36.thumb.png.e864659be7ad1777886967fd62d1a565.png

Double-click into the top cell, then drag down with the table tool to select the rest of the column.

The cells are currently a rather washed-out mix of CMY, but you can set the '3' values to zero and adjust the K (black) as required:

 

Hope this helps,

H

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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Thanks, h_d. Given what I said about the inability to select cells, how do I change the cell border. The table tool keep drawing new tables rather than letting me select cells. What you're showing in your illustration, namely black header rows and columns is not what I'm getting. So, how do I see those header rows that will allow me to select rows and columns?

Also, re. the columns, when I print the page out, the first two columns are definitely darker than the other two. 

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8 minutes ago, DianeF said:

So, how do I see those header rows that will allow me to select rows and columns?

Select the Table tool. Don't drag, but double-click into one of the cells. The cell will be selected and you'll see the row and column headers. You should have an I-beam cursor (as in my vid). You can then drag to select more cells.

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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20 minutes ago, DianeF said:

when I print the page out, the first two columns are definitely darker than the other two. 

Once you get the knack of selecting the cells, you'll see that all the 'grey' ones have the same fill: 3C3M3Y0K. The optical illusion persists on paper.

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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Sorry, but your suggestion doesn't work. When I double click into a cell, with the Table tool selected, nothing happens. Were you able to select a cell using this method with the file that I included with my post?

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3 minutes ago, DianeF said:

Were you able to select a cell using this method with the file that I included with my post?

Yes, I was working on the file you uploaded. 

 

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to suggest, as  I have no problem selecting the cells in your document using the method I described.

 

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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Also, I just created a new Publisher document, inserted a table and the same thing happened. If I double clicked into a cell with the Table Tool, I got a blue frame around the table but no black rows and column boxes. I don't understand why this is not behaving correctly on my computer. I was able to double click into a single cell to highlight it and then add color, but that's all. And I was not able to delete the entire table.

Affinity Photo, V 2.3.1    Affinity Designer, V 2.2 Affinity Publisher, V 2.3.1

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I'd be happy to, but I don't think cell selection will be maintained when I share the document.

By all means send me a pm with your email address.

One thing I've noticed - if I hover the table tool over one of the cell borders, the tool cursor changes to the table icon (as opposed to the I-beam editing cursor), and if I then drag, it draws a new table as you described above. You need to click in the centre of a cell to select the existing table rather than draw a new one.

Affinity Photo 2.0.3,  Affinity Designer 2.0.3, Affinity Publisher 2.0.3, Mac OSX 13, 2018 MacBook Pro 15" Intel.

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For anyone who is following this topic, the only way that I was able to solve my problem was to download a new copy of Publisher to replace the old one. When I created tables using the new copy I did get the black cell borders of the table that I was supposed to get. BUT, those lasted only for a little while. After a couple of hours of using the program, the black cell borders disappeared and I was back to the problem cited in the original message. I was able to finish my project, but I still think that this table feature is not working properly. I'm going to report it as a bug.

As someone who wrote a long book with many pieces of artwork in InDesign, I was very disappointed with this Publisher project. I would be very hesitant to start a larger Publisher project, especially one that required tables, given this experience.

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Hi Lagarto,

Thanks for your input. Everything you describe is not working properly on my Imac, except intermittently. I just downloaded Publisher to my laptop and, for the moment, the tables are functioning properly there.

Yesterday, I downloaded Publisher again to my Imac, and the tables worked correctly for awhile. Then they stopped working, i.e., the black headings disappeared, never to be see again. So, either this is a bug in the program or it's related to a specific configuration on my computer. I'll keep experimenting on my laptop to see if the row and column headings remain there. I understand how tables work, but in the absence of the row and column headings it's more difficult to select cells or rows and columns and then change their attributes.

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Thanks, Lagarto, but, again, what you're describing is not happening on my system. The selectors never appear on the master page even when the Table tool is selected. I am able to select rows and columns using dragging when the cursor is in the form of an Ibar, but I much prefer using the selector rows and columns.

I've noticed other glitches as well. This morning I tried to add some text and the text would not change within the text frame no matter what font I selected. Only when I used the Artistic Frame Tool rather than the regular Frame tool was I able to get the font I wanted. 

I've been using Affinity Photo for a couple of years and it's been very reliable. But Publisher is behaving in strange ways. When I have more time, I'll test out more things on my laptop to try to ascertain whether the problems have to do with my setup rather than with the program.

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Thanks for the additional thoughts.

On my laptop, I used a mouse rather than a trackpad but not the same mouse as I use with my desktop. I need to try some more things on the laptop to see whether the problem is desktop specific which would suggest a problem in my desktop system.

The problem persists on the desktop even when I create a new table on a new file. The black header rows and columns either don't show up at all or show up for a little while and then disappear.

I understand that you should edit tables on the master page rather than on subsequent pages unless you detach a subsequent page from its dependence on the master. So that isn't my issue.

When I can, I'll do some more experiments with the laptop and then post the results here. If it turns out that the problem is desktop specific, then I don't know what to do for future projects. I could try switching to a different mouse and see if that helps. If not, at least I have a laptop, so I suppose I could work on it, though I like the extra real estate of the desktop computer for design. But the problem continues to mystify me.

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  • 3 months later...

I am trying to insert a report written in Word and containing a table into an AF Publisher document. As far as I can see, AF Publisher cannot easily handle this as a single task.

My work-around is to treat ordinary text and the table contents separately. So, text cut and paste into a Publisher text frame as usual.

Copy the Word table(s) into Excel, arranging as close to final appearance as possible. Using AFP's Place command, insert the Excel spreadsheet as required directly on to the page.

If there is more free text, create more AF Publisher frames as needed and paste in any additional text.

Or is there a much simpler solution?

PS for those of us who have not regularly used Adobe's over-priced products, the Place command takes getting used to as a sort of back-to-front cut+paste command.

 

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