Change table font size

[Eddy-2]

Publisher 1.10.4.1198, Windows 10

I create a table and click on a column header (say A). This highlights all the cells in the column.

From the context bar and before entering anything in the cells I can set text justification, borders, cell colour, etc. for the selected cells. What I can't do is change the font or font size for the selected cells. These remain at Arial, 12pt.

This behaviour is different to that of a spreadsheet and of Serif's PagePlus.

What am I doing wrong?

[GarryP]

Seems to work for me – see attached video.
Does this not work for you?
If not, where in the process does it stop working?

[Eddy-2]

Thanks Garry.

I've no problem doing what you've done.

The problem is trying to change the default font and size for the entire column before entering text in the cells. This is standard procedure in a spreadsheet and PagePlus.

[GarryP]

Ah, I see what you mean.
I’ve just noticed that I can’t seem to change the font when there’s no existing text either.
I have a feeling that these two things (and maybe others) are because, from Publisher’s point of view, there’s no text to alter as the cells are empty.
However, you can apply a Paragraph Style to the cells before you add text.
I have no idea whether this is by design or not but I would guess that quite a few people would want to format their table before entering text.

[Eddy-2]

The reason I'm doing it is to create a template for a small document with a blank table and to have as many rows as possible with a specific size of text.

If I enter text into a new table, resize it and then delete it to get the blank table, the cells revert to Arial, 12pt, as before.

[carl123]

7 minutes ago, Eddy-2 said:

The reason I'm doing it is to create a template for a small document with a blank table and to have as many rows as possible with a specific size of text.

If I enter text into a new table, resize it and then delete it to get the blank table, the cells revert to Arial, 12pt, as before.

You can use the Table Formats panel to do that

[Eddy-2]

Thanks Carl.

[carl123]

31 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I have a feeling that these two things (and maybe others) are because, from Publisher’s point of view, there’s no text to alter as the cells are empty.

Create an empty table and do...

Select > Select All
Select > Select All

To select all cells (Yes, you have to do it twice on Windows. Bug???)

And you can then select the font you want for all the empty cells

Tables are still very buggy/incomplete and desperately need some Dev Lurve in the future

 

[Eddy-2]

Much better, Carl.

That's saved me half a day trying to get to grips with the Table Formats panel 😉.

Thanks again.

[carl123]

4 minutes ago, Eddy-2 said:

That's saved me half a day trying to get to grips with the Table Formats panel

Yeah, that panel is not very intuitive, took me about 3 days (off and on) to finally fully understand it

[thomaso]

You simply can select an empty table with the Move Tool to define the text style for the entire table.

Defining the text styles selectively for certain cells / rows / columns seems to be possible by assigning saved text styles only, regardless of paragraph or character style.

 

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

To select all cells (Yes, you have to do it twice on Windows. Bug???)

Same on mac. The first "Select All" selects only two cells, regardless of the number of rows/columns.

[Eddy-2]

Thanks thomaso.

I think, though, that Carl's double-select suggestion is the one I'll be using since it's more in line with what I'm used to in spreadsheets (and PagePlus), i.e. select > set.

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, carl123 said:

Create an empty table and do...

Select > Select All
Select > Select All

To select all cells (Yes, you have to do it twice on Windows. Bug???)

And you can then select the font you want for all the empty cells

When i try this on my Mac, it does not matter how I select all the cells (empty or otherwise). Once they are selected, I can change the font & size on the context menu (when the Table or either of the text tools are active) but that has no effect -- when I start entering text into any cell, it reverts to the document's Table Body Text Style.

What am I missing?

[lacerto]

9 hours ago, Eddy-2 said:

The reason I'm doing it is to create a template for a small document with a blank table and to have as many rows as possible with a specific size of text.

If I enter text into a new table, resize it and then delete it to get the blank table, the cells revert to Arial, 12pt, as before.

One possibility would be changing the table paragraph style Table Body which all documents have by default, as any new table created in the document will have its celll paragraph text properties formatted based on this style.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Lagarto said:

One possibility would be changing the table paragraph style Table Body which all documents have by default...

In APub on my Mac, the default Table Body text style for new documents is Arial 12pt regular. i made a template file from a simple APub file with a small table after setting the Table Body style to Roboto 20pt regular, which works if I use that template, but if I do not, every new doc uses Arial 12pt regular.

There does not seem to be any other way to change the default table Style I can see, but I wiould love to be proven wrong.

[thomaso]

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

i made a template file from a simple APub file with a small table after setting the Table Body style to Roboto 20pt regular, which works if I use that template, but if I do not, every new doc uses Arial 12pt regular.

I guess to make it work for all New documents you would need to "Synchronize" + "Save as Default".
But then, I guess, it would work only on your computer, nothing to share if I understand the OP's goal correctly?

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

I guess to make it work for all New documents you would need to "Synchronize" + "Save as Default".

That seems to work for setting the font family & style but not for the point size. 

[Eddy-2]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

As the attachment shows, Serif's PagePlus tables follow the spreadsheet (and word processor) convention, which seems so simple and logical.

Select the cells > change the parameters.

[thomaso]

4 hours ago, R C-R said:

That seems to work for setting the font family & style but not for the point size. 

A bug? Though the app Defaults don't store all possible properties they do store font size for text frames. From this perspective a sticky 12 pt for tables feels buggy.

[carl123]

2 hours ago, Eddy-2 said:

As the attachment shows, Serif's PagePlus tables follow the spreadsheet (and word processor) convention, which seems so simple and logical.

Yes, that is the way it should work but I think it's just an omission at this stage (work in progress) rather than any deliberate decision to leave out that functionally

 

[thomaso]

21 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Yes, that is the way it should work but I think it's just an omission at this stage (work in progress) rather than any deliberate decision to leave out that functionally

Hardly not to read as sense of British humor

[Paquettegi]

• Select the entire area of the table you want to change the font size for
• Open the Paragraph Style drop down, the default reads 'No Style'
• Select New Style
• Create Paragraph Style window opens
• on Left hand side - select Font under Character
• To the right it will list options to change, at the bottom of this short list is 'Font'
• Click the Drop down arrow and select the font size you wish to change the selected area of the table to
• Rename the "style" to what ever you wish - I renamed as "font size 15" so I could remember and easily find it
• Be sure that "Apply Style to Selection" is checked
• Click Ok at the bottom of the window
• This will change the font size in any cell you selected

Edited June 10, 2022 by Paquettegi

[Eddy-2]

Many thanks Paquettegi.