Help > Authoring > Fundamental Tasks > Understanding the Edit Window > Menus > Table Menu Introduction
  
Table Menu Introduction
The Table menu provides access to Arbortext Editor's table editing features.
Note that when you are editing a DITA relationship table, many of the choices on this menu are not available and some are changed.
Insert — Choose Table > Insert to insert table rows, columns, and grids. This submenu provides the following commands:
Row Above — Inserts a new row above the cell containing the cursor. The attributes for the new row are copied from the row containing the cursor. If you have more than one row selected, that number of rows will be inserted. The attributes for the new rows are copied from the top row of the current selection.
Row Below — Inserts a new row below the cell containing the cursor. The attributes for the new row are copied from the row containing the cursor. If you have more than one row selected, that number of rows will be inserted. The attributes for the new rows are copied from the bottom row of the current selection.
Header Row — for custom tables only, inserts a header row at the top of the table.
Column Left — Inserts a new column to the left of the cell containing the cursor. The attributes for the new column are copied from the column containing the cursor. If you have more than one column selected, that number of columns will be inserted. The attributes for the new columns are copied from the left-most column of the current selection.
Column Right — Inserts a new column to the right of the cell containing the cursor. The attributes for the new column are copied from the column containing the cursor. If you have more than one column selected, that number of columns will be inserted. The attributes for the new columns are copied from the right-most column of the current selection.
Rows and Columns — Displays the Insert Rows and Columns dialog box.
Cells — inserts a cell and gives you the option to shift existing cells in the table to the left, right, up, or down.
Cell Left — for custom tables only, inserts a new cell to the left of the current cell.
Cell Right — for custom tables only, inserts a new cell to the right of the current cell.
Grid Above — For OASIS Exchange tables, inserts a new grid of cells above the grid containing the cursor. The new grid will have the same attributes (for example, width, number of columns, column dimensions, etc.) as the grid containing the cursor, and will contain two rows.
To display this command, Full Menus must be turned on. Go to Tools > Preferences, and choose the Window category. Turn on Full Menus.
Grid Below — For OASIS Exchange tables, inserts a new grid of cells below the grid containing the cursor. The new grid will have the same attributes (for example, width, number of columns, column dimensions, etc.) as the grid containing the cursor, and will contain two rows.
To display this command, Full Menus must be turned on. Go to Tools > Preferences, and choose the Window category. Turn on Full Menus.
Delete — Choose Table > Delete to delete table rows, columns, and grids. This submenu provides the following commands:
Row — Removes the entire row of cells containing the cursor.
Column — Removes the entire column of cells containing the cursor.
Cells — deletes a cell and gives you the option to shift existing cells in the table to the left, right, up, or down.
Grid — For OASIS Exchange tables, removes the entire grid of cells containing the cursor.
To display this command, Full Menus must be turned on. Go to Tools > Preferences, and choose the Window category. Turn on Full Menus.
Table — Removes the entire table containing the cursor.
Select — Choose Table > Select to select rows, columns, and grids. This submenu provides the following commands:
Cell — Selects and highlights the cell containing the cursor.
Row — Selects and highlights all of the cells in the row containing the cursor.
Column — Selects and highlights all of the cells in the column containing the cursor.
Grid — For OASIS Exchange tables, selects and highlights all of the cells in the grid containing the cursor.
To display this command, Full Menus must be turned on. Go to Tools > Preferences, and choose the Window category. Turn on Full Menus.
Table — Selects and highlights all of the cells in all the grids in the table.
Deselect All — Cancels all the highlighted selections in cells.
Split — Choose Table > Split to split parts of a table into multiples, or split the whole table from the current location.
Cells — Displays the Split Cells dialog box.
Grid — For OASIS Exchange tables, splits the current grid into two separate grids. The row containing the cursor becomes the first row in the second grid.
You are not permitted to split a table with multiple grids.
Table (by Row) — Splits the table into two tables with the second table beginning with the row of the current cell.
This option is not available if the current row is a header or footer row, or the first body row in the table.
Frame settings for the top row of the first table are copied to the top row of the second table.
Header or footer rows, table titles, or captions are not copied to the second table.
Table (by Column) — Splits the table into two tables with the second table beginning with the column of the current cell.
This option is not available if the current column is the first column in the table. It is also not available for custom tables.
Table titles or captions are not copied to the second table.
When splitting a table by row or column, it must be contextually valid to place a second table directly after the first.
Modify Attributes — Accesses a submenu that allows you to modify table element attributes. This submenu provides the following commands:
Cell — modify attributes of the current cell.
When you are editing a DITA relationship table, this menu choice is called Cell (relcell).
Row — modify attributes of the current row.
When you are editing a DITA relationship table, this menu choice is called Row (relrow).
Column — modify attributes of the current column. Not applicable to custom tables.
Grid — modify attributes of the current grid. Only available for OASIS Exchange tables when Full Menus is enabled. Not applicable to custom tables.
Table — modify attributes of the current table.
When you are editing a DITA relationship table, this menu choice is called Table (reltable).
Span Cells — Combines two or more cells. The contents of the cells is preserved and distributed across the newly spanned cell. You may span cells horizontally, vertically, or a combination of both.
Unspan Cells — Splits cells which have been spanned. Any content is placed in the upper left-most cell.
Split Cells — Displays the Split Cells dialog box.
Convert to Header Row — Converts the currently selected row(s) to header row(s). For tables that span page boundaries, header rows print at the top of each page. Arbortext Editor automatically converts the text in the new header row(s) to bold.
Convert to Footer Row — Converts the currently selected row(s) to footer row(s). For tables that span page boundaries, footer rows print at the bottom of each page.
According to the OASIS Exchange table specification, footer rows must occur just after the header rows (if any) at the top of the table. If the selected row(s) are not in this position, they will be moved there and placed under any existing footer rows.
* 
The CALS command necessary for footer row support is not a part of the OASIS Exchange specification. If you are planning on using your documents in a strict OASIS Exchange environment, you should not use footer rows in your tables.
* 
This menu option is disabled for Arbortext Editor tables.
Convert to Body Row — Converts the currently selected header or footer row(s) to body row(s). The selected row(s) are automatically moved to the top of the body rows, just below any remaining header and footer rows.
* 
OASIS Exchange tables can have multiple (consecutive) header rows.
Distribute Columns Evenly — Makes either the selected columns, or all columns if none are selected, of equal width.
Table Properties — Opens the Table Properties dialog box.
Modify Borders — Opens the Modify Borders dialog box.