Questions about making tables
 

I need a simple table for my project consisting of 3 rows and numerous columns. No bullets, check boxes or anything fancy.

So, being unexperienced with OmniOutliner I downloaded [URL="http://www.omnigroup.com/ftp/pub/software/MacOSX/Extras/OmniOutliner/OmniOutlinerSampleDocs.dmg"]Sample documents[/URL] from the [URL="http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/extras/"]OmniOutliner Extras page[/URL].
I then opened the "Website projects" document (which was the closest I could find to a plain and simple table) and edited it for my own use.
However, I can't figure out how to do the following:

[B]1)[/B] I want to remove the very first row at the top, but it's not possible to remove it!
I can double-click it to insert text there, but it's not possible to select (by clicking it once), hence I can't delete it either.
If I click it once the whole column area below it becomes selected

[B]2)[/B] Likewise the very first column (left side) is impossible to remove. It's empty and just taking up valuable space, which is why I'd rather have it removed.

[B]3)[/B] I've chosen to keep the alternating colours (blue/white) of every second row. But instead of starting with white, and having the next row blue, how do I change this so that the [U]first[/U] row becomes blue?

[B]4)[/B] Is it possible to add some sort of separator lines between some of the rows? I realize I can add empty rows, but that's a bit much. I just need a thick black line or something.

[B]5)[/B] I've been thinking about further editing the table (adding graphics etc.) in an HTML editor, but if I save to HTML some of the special characters look very different in the web browser compared to the document in OmniOutliner. They're the arrow left/right/up/down characters. What am I doing wrong?

I've also got a problem with the table-width not being saved somehow. Whenever I reopen the document in OmniOutliner the full width of the window is used. I've already asked about this in a separate thread though...

I'm using OmniOutliner 3.6.2.

[QUOTE=technica;32311][B]1)[/B] I want to remove the very first row at the top, but it's not possible to remove it!
I can double-click it to insert text there, but it's not possible to select (by clicking it once), hence I can't delete it either.
If I click it once the whole column area below it becomes selected[/quote]
Those would be the column titles, go to View -> Show Column Titles and select Never.

[QUOTE=technica;32311][B]2)[/B] Likewise the very first column (left side) is impossible to remove. It's empty and just taking up valuable space, which is why I'd rather have it removed.[/quote]
That is the note column which can not be removed, you can move it to the right if you prefer and hide it off the side of the window but you'll be left with a horizontal scroll bar. When you add a note to a row, a indicator will appear in that column for the row.

[QUOTE=technica;32311][B]3)[/B] I've chosen to keep the alternating colours (blue/white) of every second row. But instead of starting with white, and having the next row blue, how do I change this so that the [U]first[/U] row becomes blue?[/quote]
Sorry, there is not an option for that, you can only change the color used.

[QUOTE=technica;32311][B]4)[/B] Is it possible to add some sort of separator lines between some of the rows? I realize I can add empty rows, but that's a bit much. I just need a thick black line or something.[/quote]
You can turn on grid lines through the Document: Display inspector.

[QUOTE=technica;32311][B]5)[/B] I've been thinking about further editing the table (adding graphics etc.) in an HTML editor, but if I save to HTML some of the special characters look very different in the web browser compared to the document in OmniOutliner. They're the arrow left/right/up/down characters. What am I doing wrong?[/quote]
Which characters would those be? You're not referring to part of the UI correct? Is this a font issue?

[QUOTE=technica;32311]I've also got a problem with the table-width not being saved somehow. Whenever I reopen the document in OmniOutliner the full width of the window is used. I've already asked about this in a separate thread though...[/quote]
We have a bug logged on this, you should match the window size to the document if the window is wider and you want to preserve the width.

Let me know if you have questions about any of this.

That's awesome! Your post helped a lot.

[B]3)[/B] Alternating colours.
I found out that I can do this manually. So I just switched off "alternating colors" completely and did this:

[B]a)[/B] I clicked on the very left side of the first row (selecting it)
[B]b)[/B] while holding down CMD (Apple key) I likewise clicked on the next row I wanted in the same colour. I then repeated this with the other rows in my table.
[B]c)[/B] finally (while every second row was selected) I went to the "Appearance"-"Color" inspector and chose a colour for all those rows.

This was actually a better solution for me than automatically having every second row coloured, because some of the rows in my table should stick together using the same colour.


[B]4)[/B] separating lines
Yes, I know about the grid lines, but that applies to the whole table (which is nice in many cases). But I just wanted to add some additional lines here and there, in order to separate some of the rows into smaller groups.
I was thinking of some manually added bold horizontal lines. Is that possible?

[B]5) [/B]Problems with special characters
I assume this is some sort of translation problem between OmniOutliner and the HTML document it exports. I grabbed some arrow symbols (from the MacOS character palette) which look fine in OmniOutliner. But in the HTML document some of those symbols (not all, strangely) were other symbols.

Fortunately, all that might not matter that much any longer. I was thinking of exporting my table as HTML, then further edit it to my liking in an HTML editor, but thanks to your help the original table in OmniOutliner looks almost like the way I wanted it to begin with.
Still, if you know what the cause of the problem is (and a solution) I'd be interested to know.


[B]6)[/B] Yes, that worked! I adjusted the window width, and the next time I opened it the width was preserved.
Having logged a bug on this, does it mean that version 3 will get a bug fix some day, or does this only apply to the latest version?


I have a couple of additional questions:

[B]7)[/B] I want to "print" several different table documents which all have the same layout. It's therefore important that each document's column width is exactly the same. By dragging the vertical gridlines left/right, and the total document width by adjusting the window's width I can adjust this, but it's not an accurate method.
Is there a "snap to grid" sort of function available, or a way I can enter/adjust the exact width in pixels by typing in the numbers?

[B]8)[/B] I will most likely "print" the document as a PDF file (Print-PDF-Save as PDF), but I noticed that the time/date was shown (in the preview).
By selecting "OmniOutliner" from the printer setup window I found out that there an option for "Print headers and footers". By turning it off I also lost the title of my table, which I want printed.
Is there a way to turn off only the time/date?

[QUOTE=technica;32722]
I was thinking of some manually added bold horizontal lines. Is that possible?[/quote]

Sorry no, not possible.

[QUOTE=technica;32722][B]6)[/B] Yes, that worked! I adjusted the window width, and the next time I opened it the width was preserved.
Having logged a bug on this, does it mean that version 3 will get a bug fix some day, or does this only apply to the latest version?[/quote]

In all likely hood, no, it won't be fixed for OO3, sorry.


[QUOTE=technica;32722][B]7)[/B] I want to "print" several different table documents which all have the same layout. It's therefore important that each document's column width is exactly the same. By dragging the vertical gridlines left/right, and the total document width by adjusting the window's width I can adjust this, but it's not an accurate method.
Is there a "snap to grid" sort of function available, or a way I can enter/adjust the exact width in pixels by typing in the numbers?[/quote]

The only way to do this right now is by using a script.

[CODE]tell front document of application "OmniOutliner"
set answer to display dialog "Enter width in pixels: " default answer ""
set colWidth to text returned of answer

set width of every selected column to colWidth
end tell[/CODE]

[QUOTE=technica;32722][B]8)[/B] I will most likely "print" the document as a PDF file (Print-PDF-Save as PDF), but I noticed that the time/date was shown (in the preview).
By selecting "OmniOutliner" from the printer setup window I found out that there an option for "Print headers and footers". By turning it off I also lost the title of my table, which I want printed.
Is there a way to turn off only the time/date?[/QUOTE]
The standard version of OmniOutliner has no control over the contents of the header/footer. The Pro version allows you to customize them.

Thanks again.

I figured out how to install and use the script, but it's very much hit and miss.
The thing is that I have no idea which pixel values to enter, so it's all a matter of guessing. Is there a way to read the current width, then make some minor adjustments according to that?

I've already taken care to adjust the who table width until I see a couple of red "Page boundary" show up. Aligning this is pretty hard, and doesn't seem to be pixel accurate, which means that I certainly won't be getting the same width for all my documents.
What's the best way to go about this?

Well, if you modify the script to be:

[CODE]tell front document of application "OmniOutliner"
set answer to display dialog "Enter width in pixels: " default answer (width of first selected column as string)
set colWidth to text returned of answer

set width of every selected column to colWidth
end tell[/CODE]

That will tell you the width of the first column you have selected as the default answer.

The page boundary is partly dynamic especially when dealing with multiple columns as it will not want to split a column in the middle. The max boundary though should always be set by your margins and page width.