Why are tables so hateful?

[Ross Burton]

I'm trying to have a small table where the text aligns with the baseline grid and it's driving me crazy. If I change the transparency of the baseline grid lines the tables reflow and change size, usually to something uneven. Am I cursed or should I just always work on tables in the evening when I can drink at the same time?

[MikeTO]

If you don't want the table text to align to the baseline grid, open the Table panel and deselect the Baseline Grid > Use Baseline Grid checkbox.

But while testing this I found a repeatable bug with it which is probably what is causing you grief. It seems to work backward from what it's supposed to. For now, you can workaround it by turning on Use Baseline Grid in the Table panel and then moving the table a couple of times to correct the cell heights.

FYI, this bug isn't new, it was in v1, too, and is still present in the 2.1 beta 1732.

1. Create a new document
2. Choose View > Baseline Grid > Use Baseline Grid - it should be set to 14pt by default
3. Zoom in enough so you can see the baseline grid
4. Draw a table starting about halfway between the baselines and spacing the table so that none of the cells are aligned with the baselines as shown on the left below
5. Type text into the cells - the first cell's text will be aligned to the baseline as shown in the 2nd screenshot even though the panel's Use Baseline Grid option is off
6. Select the panel's Use Baseline Grid option will result in something like the 3rd screenshot - it's no longer using the baseline grid but it's messed up the cell heights
7. Deselect the panel's Use Baseline Grid option will result in something like the 4th screenshot - the cells are all aligned to the baseline grid even though it's off but the cell heights are still different.
8. To get it to not align to the baseline, select Use Baseline Grid and then drag the table up and down a couple of times until the cell heights correct themselves
      

[MikeTO]

Oh, I think this is just a typo and if so it's working as designed, except for the odd cell height thing which is easy to fix by dragging the table a bit.

If you compare the Table and Text Frame panels, Text Frame has a "Use Independent Baseline Grid" option while Table has a "Use Baseline Grid" option. I thought the fact that it wasn't named "Independent" meant tables were supposed to ignore the document's baseline grid. But since tables clearly aren't ignoring the document's grid, this function is working identically to Text Frame. If the option was renamed to "Use Independent Baseline Grid" then the way it works would make sense.

So until Serif replies, just assume "Use Baseline Grid" is supposed to be named "Use Independent Baseline Grid".

 

[Ross Burton]

Yes, the table setting is its own baseline grid, and that behaves as expected. My frustration was trying to make a table that aligns to the document grid and how simply changing the colour of the baseline grid caused the tables to reflow (cell heights change).

[MikeTO]

33 minutes ago, Ross Burton said:

Yes, the table setting is its own baseline grid, and that behaves as expected. My frustration was trying to make a table that aligns to the document grid and how simply changing the colour of the baseline grid caused the tables to reflow (cell heights change).

Changing the colour of the grid obviously shouldn't change anything but this is part of the glitch in cell heights. Making any change to the table, such as changing its position or even the colour of the grid causes Publisher to recalculate the cell heights. It's odd.

[Dan C]

Hi Ross Burton,

Thanks for the information, I've added a bug report for this.

Lee