Table frustrations. Waiting for table spreading since 2019.

[Daniel Gibert]

Grumpy grandad in:

First; I love Affinity's apps. I'm a total evangelist and convinced a lot of customers and colleagues to purchase it. I have been a "Affinitier" since 2015 and I won't go back. So please, don't take this as a free light ranting.

I'm tired. I'm frustrated. Because of tables. And I have been this way since Publisher came out. I can't understand by Affinity decided to make tables as a separate monolithic object only.

Why, in the name of the design gods, they decided to make it like something outside of the text (Something that even the cheapest, crappiest text editor app understand).

Why, in the name of the design hell's lord they decided that tables can't spread through text containers, columns and pages.

Why, in the name of sanity, can't we set a fixed width to a table, or set fixed width to a column, or block the width to prevent Publisher resizing them whenever I move any other single column, making a nightmare to set the table layout.

I'm tired. This is the single cause of friction and discussion inside out studio team. This is the cause of delays and multiple errors on our work. It is the cause that we have started to make tables in a larger document apart so we can work with big tables before segmenting them to be placed into the final layout. This is why we fear to add or move any design element, because the hideous tables will no spread or move correctly in the documents breaking all the text workflow. This is why we fear to modify a table layout, because we will have to do it on all the segments of the table.

Our last work toke 4 extra hours just because of the tables. Because of the need to segment it and re-layout it after any document modification. And that's 4 hours I can't pass onto the customer because is not their fault.

In 2019, Affinity recognized that this was a very requested feature. Now we are in 2023, and that forum post is deep under into the vault of the lost threads. But we still have to design tables with virtual scissors and glue.

Publisher v2 has been a great improvement on a lot of things, but this table thing is outrageous, and just now, in the middle of a urgent complex corporate document full of tables, it is wat is making us to be working on Sunday instead of walking the dog in the countryside.

I don't know what more to say. I wish Affinity to tell us something more that "we know it is requested we will look into it, someday"

For all the love that I have to the team, I hate tables in Affinity. And I hate to be inside the studio trying to make tables to work on Sunday.

Grumpy grandad out.

[Callum]

Hi Daniel

From what I can see this isn't something that is on our radar to be added right now I'm afraid as other features are taking priority. Unfortunately all I can really say is the same thing I did in 2019 which is that this may be added in a future update.

Thanks
C

[Daniel Gibert]

6 minutes ago, Callum said:

Hi Daniel

From what I can see this isn't something that is on our radar to be added right now I'm afraid as other features are taking priority. Unfortunately all I can really say is the same thing I did in 2019 which is that this may be added in a future update.

Thanks
C

Thanks, Callum

I really appreciate your quick and sincere answer. Please, don't interpret our ranting as a recrimination or harsh criticism. I love your team's work and I really appreciate the hard work you all are doing to make this suite the best in market.

As I said, it is just a grumpy vent because we have been the last two days trying to get things done and spending more time just making tables work than in the whole project design and layout, and we feel exhausted of it. I have hope this will be addresses in the future (the nearest the better) because just now we have a studio with three people in a bad mood because we can't just design an important project.

For now, knowing you know it, is all I can have and it is fine. We will cope with it.

Thanks again and the best for the team.

Daniel

[Print Monkey]

Please re-evaluate table improvements

[joe_l]

I totally understand everyone's frustration with tables. At my work I need tables on a regular basis and they are a pita. Dear Serif, rethink your priorities on what basics are to a layout application, don't waste your time on fancy features anymore you drop after a while. I even made my peace with the clumsy colour organisation, but TABLES? Tables are basic. Please.

[PaoloT]

My work is mostly made of tables. I think that most technical and scientific books are made of tables. It's a sad reality that we technical and scientifc writers are cut out of Publisher (not only because of the lack of tables, but this is one of the most important omissions).

So, yes, I add my vote for better tables.

Paolo

 

[dbacoreworks]

Want to switch full-time from Adobe InDesign to Affinity Publisher and the inability to span tables across multiple pages is the reason I can't. I do general page layout work for engineering & related firms and it's a must-have element. Adding my vote here that it should be moved way up the priority list.