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Formatting tables in next gen documents

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Comments

21 comments

  • Mike

    Hi Megan,

    Thanks for the question. You are correct, currently the style guide options for table styles doesn't include things like borders, line weights, or color fills. This is something that's being looked into and you are not alone in this request. I've attached your comments to our internal ticket and you can follow along on progress here: https://support.workiva.com/hc/en-us/requests

    Furthermore, when you say that it doesn't seem to be working properly, can you expand on what you are experiencing there?

    Lastly, the formatting options for tables in next gen are found in a few places. First is in the toolbar under the Edit menu, and the second is in the right-hand pane under Properties > Table Properties.

    Thanks again and looking forward to chatting with you further. Cheers!

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  • Julaine Deshayes

    Add another user looking for these features in Next Gen.

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  • Mike

    I've connected your request to the internal ticket Julaine Deshayes.

    One thing I wanted to check, for tables, the edit toolbar is contextual, meaning the items that appear under the edit toolbar will change depending on the type of content you have selected in the document. In the case, the reason you may not be seeing line weight, color, and fill, is because the embedded table is selected. While our team investigates this further, I wanted to be sure to pass that along.

    Thanks again and chat soon!

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  • Kathy Uttley

    How do I remove / add borders in a table?

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  • Mike

    Hi Kathy!

    You can do this through the toolbar. First, click on a cell (or cells) and then click on the border icon. From here you have many options, such as color, style and weight. Then, click Apply.

    Hopefully this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or need anything else. Happy Friday in the meantime. Cheers!

     

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  • Paul Goode

    We made regular use of the table border weight, color, and fill in the previous generation of WDesk. Text and numeric tables are central to many of our documents, and it is a real loss that we can't control what is key part of our document design. Plus, files imported into Next Gen are all over the place -- zero consistency from one table to the next.  Please address this soon. As it is, to achieve formatting consistency, I am looking at putting tables back into Word, then pasting them back into WDesk.  

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  • Mike

    Hi Paul Goode!

    Thanks for your feedback on this. We are always looking to improve your overall experience. We'll be in touch soon with the specifics of your issue, but do let me know if you need anything from me in the meantime. Thanks again and chat soon!

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  • Mariana Madero

    Hello, 

    I am having the same issue formatting tables; When I format fill and borders I don't have the "alternate rows" option which makes it time consuming to format.

    Has there been any solution to this yet?

    Thank you!

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  • Mike

    Hello Mariana Madero!

    Sorry to hear you are having issues with formatting your tables. Happy to help as best I can.

    To make sure I understand your question, from the table properties on the right-hand panel, do you not see this option?

    Also, the keyboard shortcut to apply alternate row shading is slightly different in next gen vs. Classic. In next gen, click Ctrl + Shift + A while in Classic its Ctrl + Shift + S.

    Let me know if I've missed the mark or you have any follow-ups on the above. Thanks again for your contributions and chat with you soon. Cheers!

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  • Bryan Gregston

    Hello,

    Is there a way to remove a border from a single side of a cell or group of cells?  I only see a way to remove all borders (the no borders button).  I need to target a single side, otherwise I have to clear everything and add a bunch of stuff back.

     

    Thanks

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  • Mike

    Hi Bryan,

    Yep, for sure! When you click on a cell, the border picker should show up in your toolbar. From that option, there should be one for a single side (left, right, top or bottom). Here's a quick example:

    Does this answer your question? Let me know if not, or if I've missed the mark. Thanks for the question and chat with you soon!

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  • Bryan Gregston

    Hi Mike,  I've been using that portion of the toolbar, but what I was trying to do yesterday is modify a cell that had borders on two sides, bottom and right.  What I needed to do was remove the bottom border without affecting the right side border, but those buttons didn't seem to fit the bill.  Am I missing how some of this functionality works?  Any plans to add the graphic user interface that the classic version had where we can pick and choose the sides to add or subtract from?

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  • Mike

    Gotcha, Bryan!

    Thank makes sense, and I recall what you mean. I often would forget to click on the cell border I wanted to change and nothing would happen. I can say that yes, I see several tickets in flight for our Product Team relating to improvements there, including that border picker window. I'll add your feedback there so you can stay updated.

    Thanks for your insights and let me know if I can do anything else for you. Much appreciated and have a great day!

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  • Paul Goode

    Bryan, you might try assignng the same color to the border as the cell background.

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  • Michelle Halgren

    I'm looking for the "paragraph properties" options for Next Gen tables: all of the hanging indents for wrapped text have disappeared in our transitioned file. The ability to apply this type of formatting in Wdesk tables was a big selling point for us when we switched from our other provider and I would hate to lose it! Where should I be looking?

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  • Mike

    Hi Michelle!

    For a table in a next gen Document, you have to select a chunk of text for the Paragraph Properties to appear in the right-hand panel. Here's a quick example:


    I should add that currently, hanging indents are not available in next gen tables as the ruler bar is not yet pushed out. This is on the Product Team's current map and should be released very soon, actually.  This existing convo covers this request as well as some workaround to achieve this currently. In the meantime, I've added your request to the list and we'll keep you apprised here with any developments, as well as on the linked post.

    Thanks for your contributions and happy Monday!

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  • Nicole Sackedis

    Mike,

     

    We transition to Next Gen and are having difficulty with several of our tables being pushed over to the right and i don't know how to move them more to the left. They were aligned in Classic but could you direct me to what option provides me this abilty to move to the left. I looked under properties but no option i select seems to get the table to move.  Same problem in our header table too.

     

    Thanks

    Nicole

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  • Paul Goode

    Hi, Nicole--

    I had a similar question re how to center a table. Rachel Olive responded: "if you select the table by dragging your cursor across the entire table so it turns blue, or put your cursor before the table, you can use the alignment buttons in the toolbar to change the whole tab to center alignment. I created this quick gif, because a picture is always more helpful than words!" 

    This worked for me.If you can find my post and her response, you can see the .gif.

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  • Jennifer K Hewitt

    Adding to this thread - we make extensive use of tables in our documents - literally 200+ tables.  They transitioned over fairly well from Classic to NextGen, but I'm finding that when I add a row, the formatting is not carrying forward consistently, particularly in the cell borders.  The Painter feature is also not helpful since it somehow doesn't recognize the bottom border, so removes it from the destination cells.  As a workaround, I'm adding new bottom borders, but it's nearly impossible to match the other cells in the table - the characteristics of the existing borders are not visible anywhere within the formatting windows.  (e.g., was that a black line, or a variation of grey; is it a 1.0 or 0.5 point line)  It's also hard to distinguish between the two just by looking at it on the screen - I have to print them to really see it.  The end result is that the tables look inconsistent, which detracts from an otherwise polished final product.  Eventually, I will go through and reformat everything to be consistent, but it will be very time-consuming since many of the cells are locked, so will have to be unlocked, edited, and locked again consistently.  Just being able to see what the current settings are so I can check them in the rest of the cells and make a limited number of edits would be incredibly helpful.

    BTW - this also applies to Presentation tables.

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  • Joy Duncan

    Hi, 

    We're having the same issue as Jennifer above, how can we see the characteristics of the lines? Its very difficult to tell what a line looks like in an embedded Workiva table without printing.   

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  • Mike

    Hi Jennifer K Hewitt and Joy Duncan!

    Thanks for bringing this to our attention. That certainly sounds less than ideal and outside of what we'd expect or want from the experience. I've drummed up your requests with our Support and Product Teams to see if they can better assist. We'll be in touch in both cases but do let me know what questions you have for me in the meantime. Thanks again for the heads up and chat soon!

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