Publisher 2: Master/global table styling, independent content?

[Jamesx1]

Spent a couple of hours trying to figure this out, but couldn't do it.

In Publisher v2, I have a table on a master page, which is applied to the 12 booklet pages that use that master page.

I have styled the table as needed, and I'm happy to use text styles within the cells too.

I simply want to maintain my ability to globally tweak the table, while of course writing unique text as needed in each of the table instances on the 12 pages. i.e. I need structure/styling global, while changing content on a per page basis, exactly like I get with all the other elements on my master page (image frames, text boxes, etc).

How do I achieve this? Editing any of the cell content in the instances will detach it from the master page table styling. Furthermore, I can't figure out why I can't save my master page table as a table format, and apply that to each instance in 'Edit Detached' mode. This, however, seems to be of no use anyway since the column widths etc are not included.

How do I achieve global table control from a master page, with independent content for each instance?

Any help is very much appreciated. 

[Lee D]

@Jamesx1 For the moment some workflows do require the table to be detached from the Master page to allow edits to take place on the individual pages.

We do have some improvements logged with regards to tables and master pages within Publisher. Some of these may be added in future releases as development continues. If you do have any suggestions on what further improvements could be made, please post them here.

 

[Jamesx1]

On 2/14/2025 at 3:01 AM, Lee D said:

@Jamesx1 For the moment some workflows do require the table to be detached from the Master page to allow edits to take place on the individual pages.

We do have some improvements logged with regards to tables and master pages within Publisher. Some of these may be added in future releases as development continues. If you do have any suggestions on what further improvements could be made, please post them here.

 

Thanks for your reply Lee, understood.

Still having lots of problems with this, though, even with a workaround.

I'd be happy to maintain 12 separate/detached instances of the table, aligned via master guides, but I am having serious issues with table formats. I need one table format applied to all of them, so that should be a degree of global control.

I change the styling of the tables in the correct table format, and it simply doesn't update the table to which it is applied. All it will change is the overall background fill. All the cell borders, padding, border color etc, will change nothing and I have no idea why. Stroke and Fill doesn't do anything for the cells, only background fill will appear as a change it etc. I've played around extensively with selecting cells and what not, nothing has worked and I'm very confused.

Can you please let me know how to edit the table format so that the changes are seen? Or, is this a bug? Really appreciate any guidance here.

[carl123]

1 hour ago, Jamesx1 said:

I need one table format applied to all of them, so that should be a degree of global control.

I change the styling of the tables in the correct table format, and it simply doesn't update the table to which it is applied.

These two videos will probably explain why that happens and how to fix it

She explains a lot about tables and what can go wrong and how to fix any issues

The 2nd one also explains some of the additional features (later in the video)

But best to watch the first one first then the second

Well worth taking the time to watch them all the way through if you are new to Table Formats

 

 

 

 

 

[Jamesx1]

16 hours ago, carl123 said:

These two videos will probably explain why that happens and how to fix it

Thanks Carl.

The answer was buried in the videos - basically I had to create my own cell formats instead of trying to make heads or tails of what Publisher extracted as cell formats.

However, my main problem still remains. So, now that I have a correct table format and know how to edit it, why doesn't it update all tables using that table format when I change something, like the cell divider/border color?

- I edit the table format via my master page by changing a cell border color (which should be irrelevant anyway since all instances of the table are using my table format).

- It updates the instance that I originally clicked on (the one in my master page).

- It does not update the 12 other instances in my booklet that use that master page. The cell border remains the same as was originally, pre table format change.

- I select one of these instance directly, and yes it is still assigned the correct table format I just changed. So via this instance of the table, I open the table format settings again and they in fact have been updated correctly to the new border color, but this color simply does not update the actual table on any of my 12 instances. (How can it say the table format is applied if it doesn't style as per per the table format?)

- When I change the color again to test this further, it still doesn't update the 12 instances of my table.

Question: My table format is correct, and correctly applied to all instances, so why doesn't the style (border color) update all instances when I update the table format? Why does it refuse to update it at all, while simultaneously recognising that the format is indeed applied, and the correct border color is in fact in the table format settings?

My understanding was that the point of a table format was to control table styling globally?

I'd really appreciate knowing what I am still missing here and how to change basic styling in one place for all instances.

[carl123]

Everything appear to update correctly when I test this

Can you supply a sample document with the tables in it (we don't need the data) so we can try to see what is happening with yours?

 

 

[Jamesx1]

3 hours ago, carl123 said:

Everything appear to update correctly when I test this

Can you supply a sample document with the tables in it (we don't need the data) so we can try to see what is happening with yours?

 

 

Thanks for your offer Carl - very much appreciate it. I just figured it out though. For every instance of the table on the 12 pages, I had to 'edit detached' each one, select my cell format again, ensure 'apply to selection' etc was ticked, and save it again, for the table format to apply the changes, even though it recognised that that table format was already applied to the table. I thought it would be designed to update globally since they all have the same table format. Is that the intended behaviour, or is it a bug?  

[carl123]

18 minutes ago, Jamesx1 said:

. Is that the intended behaviour, or is it a bug?  

No, imagine if you had 100 tables not just 12, it would be impractical to do it that way

I think at some point you may have unlinked one of the attributes of the master table that meant it could not update changes to that particular attribute on the other 12 pages

But if you have found a workaround to correct it, that's all that matters

[Jamesx1]

53 minutes ago, carl123 said:

I think at some point you may have unlinked one of the attributes of the master table that meant it could not update changes to that particular attribute on the other 12 pages

Thanks Carl. Not sure exactly what I did, but for this project, happy to use the workaround, no problem.  Thanks again for all your help.