When you need to use a table in a knowledge base article, follow these guidelines and formatting instructions to make the content accessible to all users.
This article covers:
- Guidelines for Using a Table
- Inserting a Table in an Article
- Setting Column Widths
- Adding or Removing Rows and Columns from a Table
- Merging Cells in a Table
Guidelines for Using a Table
- Only use a table when you need to convey a relationship between two or more items.
- Make the table accessible
- Organize the information in the table to have either the first row or column act as a header.
- Include a caption that briefly describes the content of the table.
- Add a border to the table.
- If possible, do not use more than three columns. Tables with more than three columns are difficult to navigate on mobile devices.
Inserting a Table in an Article
- Place your cursor in the article where you want the table to be added.
- Click the Table button
in the editor toolbar. A Table Properties window opens.
- Specify the number of Rows and Columns.
- Select Add borders.
- Open the Headers dropdown.
- Designate a header row, column, or both:
- For a row select First Row.
- For a column select First Column.
- For both the first row and first column select Both.
- For guidelines on table captions, see Accessible U Tables. Refer to Designate Row and/or Column Headers in the Dos and Don'ts section.
- Add a table caption in the Caption text box.
- For guidelines on table captions, see Accessible U Tables. Refer to Provide Contextual Information in the Dos and Don'ts section.
- Click OK.
Setting Column Widths
To set the width of a column, you can designate that width within the Cell Properties of the first cell.
- Right-click on the first cell in the column.
- Select Cell from the menu.
- Click Cell Properties.
- Set the cell width in the Width textbox.
- Width can be set by percentage of the table (50 percent of the table, 80 percent of the table, etc) or by number of pixels.
- Click OK.
Adding or Removing Rows and Columns from a Table
Adding a Row or Column
- Right-click on a row/column in the table.
- Select Row (or Column) from the menu.
- Choose to either Insert Row/Column Before or Insert Row/Column After the selected row.
Deleting a Row or Column
- Right-click on the row/column you want to delete.
- Select Row or Column from the menu.
- Select Delete Rows or Delete Columns.
Merging Cells in a Table
- Right-click on the cell you want to merge.
- Or, highlight two cells you want to merge.
- Select Cell from the menu.
- Choose Merge right or Merge down to merge one cell with another
- Or, if you highlighted two cells select Merge Cells to merge the two together.
- To undo a merge, select Split Cell Vertically or Split Cell Horizontally.