Tables: Simpler way to set up table headers and alternating row colours

[Kristian]

As a beginner, creating a basic table is simple, but I wish adding headers and alternating colours were easier.

"Table formats" had me confused a couple of places:

1. Adding multiple "Cell formats" to get alternating colours isn't intuitive to me. It would be nice if there was a checkbox for adding alternating colours, with small colour pickers next to odd and even row numbers.
2. The plus and minus buttons are positioned in opposite sides of the screen. At first, I only saw the plus buttons.
3. I wouldn't expect the triangle icons to be how you create a table header. Again, it would be nice to have a "Add table header style" checkbox, with a "cell format" like rectangular box I can double-click to edit table header appearance.
4. If I have a table with alternating colours, and then select all cells and colour them differently, I can't find a way to re-apply the table format I created.
5. If I create a new document, I can't seem to find the "Table format" I created previously. Are these only stored per document?

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by Kristian

[fde101]

On 7/9/2019 at 11:20 AM, Kristian said:

It would be nice if there was a checkbox for adding alternating colours, with small colour pickers next to odd and even row numbers.

That would limit the number of alternations.  The existing feature supports rotating among three or more colors, for example - dumbing it down to the proposed checkbox solution would remove functionality.

 

On 7/9/2019 at 11:20 AM, Kristian said:

The plus and minus buttons are positioned in opposite sides of the screen. At first, I only saw the plus buttons.

I agree, this could be improved.

 

On 7/9/2019 at 11:20 AM, Kristian said:

it would be nice to have a "Add table header style" checkbox

Again, you are creating limitations that don't exist in the current solution.  For example, you can currently have alternating (or rotating) cell styles in the columns of a header.

 

On 7/9/2019 at 11:20 AM, Kristian said:

If I have a table with alternating colours, and then select all cells and colour them differently, I can't find a way to re-apply the table format I created.

Right-click on the table format in the Table Formats studio panel and select Apply (Override Local).

 

On 7/9/2019 at 11:20 AM, Kristian said:

Are these only stored per document?

Yes, they are per-document., but you can import them using an option in the hamburger menu in the upper-right corner of the Table Formats panel.

 

See also:

https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Panels/tableFormatsPanel.html?title=Table Formats panel

https://affinity.help/publisher/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Tables/createCustomTables.html?title=Creating custom tables