Table Editing Modes

There are two "modes" that you can be in when working with tables. When you first create a table, you are in "structure editing" mode, indicated by the gray handles and

icons. In this mode, you can select cells, groups of cells, or the entire table, and perform operations on them.

The other mode is "content editing" mode, in which you can insert text or other elements (including other tables) inside table cells. In this mode, the gray handles and icons are not present.

To change from structure editing to content editing mode, double-click in a cell. The cell's contents are selected, and you can type or select an element from the toolbar to replace them. To change from content editing to structure editing mode, press Control and click in any cell other than the one that was selected.

Alternatively, you can switch from one mode to the other by clicking in the toolbar. Also, after you've clicked anywhere outside a table, clicking in the table puts you in content editing mode; Control-clicking puts you in structure editing mode.

In structure editing mode, you can:

Select an individual cell by clicking it.
Select a row by clicking one of the gray handles at the end of the row.
Select a column by clicking the top cell in a column and dragging to the bottom.
Select additional cells by clicking them while holding down the Shift key.
Select the entire table, or any group of contiguous cells by clicking and dragging.
Delete a row by selecting it (or any cell in the row) and clicking .
Delete a column by selecting any cell in the column and clicking .
Split a selected cell horizontally by clicking or vertically by clicking .
Merge a group of selected contiguous cells into a single cell by clicking .
Note: This command isn't enabled unless the selected cells make up a group that could logically be merged into one cell.
Wrap an abstract dynamic element (conditional or repetition) around a selected row or cell (see "Repetitions") by clicking dynamic element's icon in the toolbar.

In content editing mode, you can:

Type text in the cell.
Add another element inside a cell (by clicking its toolbar icon or using a menu command).

In either mode, you can press Tab to move to the next cell to the right (or the first cell of the next row if in the rightmost column). Pressing Shift-Tab moves in the opposite direction through the table.

A special case arises when you have embedded a table within a table cell. In this case:

To edit text in a cell in the embedded table, just click in the cell.
To select the embedded table or one of its elements, first click in the cell surrounding the embedded table, and then Control-click the embedded table to select it.

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