2. Example Tables

	The purpose of this chapter is to look at some example tables created
with TableMaker, both to show what it can do, and to show how you can easily
create tables such as these.

	The first example you have already seen - Table 1 of this manual
(Tables 2-6 are very similar). This table consists of two frames. The first
frame is the caption at the bottom of the table, while the second frame holds
the body of the table. To create this table, first double click on the
TableMaker icon. TableMaker starts by opening up a custom black & white
screen, with a table containing no frames or pies. The borders of the table
are on, with solid lines of 1 pixel width. The background color is set to be
color 0 (black). Since those borders and that background color are what we
want, we won't have to modify these parameters at all.

	Although we probably don't know right away how big a table will be
required, usually the first step after creating the table is to resize the
table to roughly the size thought to be needed. The final version of Table 1
is 265 pixels high and 600 pixels wide. Sizing the table is accomplished
either by using the Table->Size menu item (the notation Table->Size means
the Size subitem of the Table menu) and entering the desired parameters in
the resulting requester, or by using the Table->Mouse Size menu item and
adjusting the size by moving the mouse. Usually it's easiest to do rough
adjustments using the mouse, with final adjustments entered through the
requester for the highest precision. These operations, along with all the
Table adjustments, are described in Chapter 5. TableMaker automatically
creates the correct screen type according to your table size - high (640)
or low (320) horizontal resolution, and interlaced (400) or normal (200)
vertical mode. To change from low to high resolution, or normal to
interlaced, you must use the Table->Size requester - the mouse can only
change the screen type from high to low resolution or from interlaced back
to normal.

	With the table of approximately the right size, it's now time to
build the first frame. The caption frame is easiest, so we'll do it first.
Using the Frame->New menu item, we'll create a new frame. As described in
Chapter 6, up pops a requester labeled Frame Parameters which allows the
specification of the width, height, positioning, and number of cells in the
frame. The values inserted will create a frame with 1 row and 1 column, with
height and width set ½ the size of the table, and positioned at the center of
the table. These are not the parameters we want, so we use the gadgets in the
requester to change these parameters to be 400 pixels wide, centered, and 20
pixels high, located 10 pixels above the bottom of the table. Hitting "OK"
on the requester causes the frame to be created, with the word "Text" 
appearing in the one cell of our new frame. By using the centered horizontal
and bottom-relative vertical positioning, the caption will stay centered at
the bottom of our table as we resize it - making it easier to update the
table as we complete it.

	To enter the text into the cell in this frame, we can either select
the cell with the mouse and use the Cell->Text/Font menu item, or just double
click on the cell. Either method brings up the Cell Text/Font requester,
where we can click in the gadget containing "Text", hit `Right Amiga-X' or
repeated backspaces to delete "Text", and then type in the desired caption -
"Table 1, TableMaker Manual Organization." We then hit return to have
TableMaker accept the change (if return is not hit, the change is not
entered, to allow you to abort an editing operation). Using the up and down
triangles next to the Font Name, we select the desired font (ruby 12). Once
all the changes have been made, the "OK" button is hit with the mouse, the
requester disappears, and the table is redrawn to reflect the new cell
content. We then use the Cell->Colors requester to change the color of the
text to use white as the foreground color, in mode JAM1. This is all we have
to do to create the caption frame.

	Building the body frame is somewhat more complicated, as it has many
more cells, and uses some manipulation of the parameters to make it appear as
though the columns have different widths. First we create the frame with
Frame->New, then enter parameters into the requester to create a frame 540
pixels wide (centered), and 220 pixels high, with a margin of 10 pixels from
the top of the table. The number of rows is set to 10 and the number of
columns is also set to 10. If these numbers seem strange, let's look at why
they were selected. The most obvious question is, "Why 10 columns." The table
appears to have 3 columns, of varying widths. Since I wanted 10% of the width
to be used for the Chapter, 30% for the Title, and 60% for the Description,
it was easy to see that a width from which I could build up these values
would be 10% of the frame, achieved by having 10 columns.

	It's often useful to have a thicker border on the outside of a body
frame, or as a separator between columns titles and their content. This
technique was used in Table 1. Using the Frame->Border Param->Left menu item,
I changed the width to 2 pixels, and used the Frame->Border Color->Left menu
item to ensure the colors were correct. I then used Frame->Border Param->Copy
three times to copy the left border to the top, right and bottom, using the
gadget produced to indicate which border should be copied to. Copying
borders is typically much faster than re-creating each border's parameters
from scratch.

	The next step is to create the top row, which will serve as the
column labels. Double-clicking inside the upper left corner brought up the
Cell Text/Font requester, where I entered the text "Chap", and changed the
font to diamond 12. I then used the Cell->Border menu subitems to create
borders on the left, top, and bottom of width 2, and of width 1 on the right.
Selecting the next cell to the right, we repeat the process, entering the
text "Title", but not enabling the right border. Columns 3&4 will not contain
any text, they're just there to reserve space for the text starting in column
2. Column 5 is identical to column 2 except for its text. Thus, using the
Cell->Copy->Params menu item, we can copy all the parameters of the cell
from column 2 (row 1) to column 5. Double-clicking on the new cell and 
entering "Description" in the text gadget completes the process for this
cell. This is very typical of building tables with TableMaker - you use
TableMaker's facilities to set the colors, font, borders, etc. for a cell;
then use one of the Cell->Copy menu items to replicate that cell. A typical
table will have a small number of unique cell parameter combinations.

	Column 3 (row 1) won't have any text, but does need borders. We turn
its top and bottom borders on, with a width of 2 pixels. Columns 4 and 7-10
are all identical, so we can use Cell->Copy->Params to create them.

	Moving along to row 2, we'll first create the cell that contains the
"1" indicating Chapter 1. Double-clicking on the cell allows us to enter the
"1" and to change the font to diamond 12. All four borders need to be
enabled, the top and left ones at width 2, the right and bottom at width 1.
We then copy row 2 to row 3, change the text to read "2" and change the
width of the top border back to 1. This format will then serve for the
balance of column 1, so we use Copy->Cell->Params to copy into rows 4-10,
and change the text of each to its proper parameter.

	In column 2, row 2, we double-click, enter "Introduction", and
change the font to diamond 12 with style Under. Adjusting the borders for
all on but the right one, with the top border having width 2 and the others
1, concludes this cell. We can copy this cell into column 2, row 3, change
the top border width back to 1, and change the text to "Using TableMaker."
This set of parameters holds for the remainder of the column, so we copy the
parameters and then update the text.

	Columns 3,4, and 6-10 all just need borders - top and bottom, with
those in row 2 having a top border width of 2 and the others having width 1.
We create the first one of each type, then use the Copy function to update
the others. This leaves only column 5. It is created essentially the same way
as column 2, the only exception being the specific text entered, and the font
which is set to topaz 8 with Italic style.

	Although this may read like a lot of steps, it's actually quite easy.
Work through this example yourself using TableMaker, and you'll see you can
easily create this kind of table in just a few minutes.

	It would be great if we knew exactly the final form of our tables as
we started out, so we could calculate the number of rows and columns and the
sizes ahead of time. Unfortunately, we're rarely able to do so. Thus, it is
important to be able to modify a TableMaker table. One very common need is
to enter a new row or column into a table. Selecting a cell and using the
Cell->Insert Row or Cell->Insert Col menus will accomplish this function
easily and quickly. Inserting a new row will copy the parameters of each
new cell from the cell immediately preceding it. In most tables where the
cell parameters are similar, this will eliminate the need to make a lot of
cell parameter changes. Inserting a new column will copy the parameters of 
each new cell from a single cell, so slightly more work may be required. One
should try to have the frame height and width be multiples of the number of
rows and columns for proper spacing of the final row/column relative to the
table border. Thus, if a row or column is inserted, you may need to adjust
the size of the frame. TableMaker also allows the deletion of a row or
column.

	The second example is shown here as Table 7. The tables built for
this user's manual are examples of tables built as part of a desktop
publishing environment - the tables were meant to be used as input to an
integrated text & graphics document. Table 7, though included in this manual,
was built to be used by itself. This table is a schedule of some children's
activities, used to coordinate carpools. Ignoring the frame used to hold the
caption (added for its inclusion in this manual), there are 4 frames and
2 pies in this table, though it could easily be built with 3 frames. The
four frames are the title (Kid's Activity Schedule), the left-most "column"
containing the days of the week, the top-most "row" containing the names of
the kids, and the body of the table. The two pies show the distribution of 
activities by child, and the distribution of activities by day.


	The title was built using a horizontally centered frame with three
rows, using the sapphire 19 bold font. The days of the week is a left-aligned
frame with 1 column and 12 rows (1 for Monday, 4 for Tuesday, 2 for
Wednesday, 2 for Thursday, 1 for Friday, and 2 for Saturday), using the
ruby 12 bold font. The kids' names' frame is a right aligned, 1 row 3 column
frame using the sapphire 14 font and centered text in each cell. Finally,
the body frame is 3 columns and 12 rows, using topaz 8 as the font. Borders
were created and copied to create solid lines between the columns and between
the days, and dotted lines to separate activities on the same day. The sizes
and locations of the frames were selected to make the tops of the days and
body frames align, and the lefts of the names and body frames; with the
day/body frames abutting horizontally and the name/body frames abutting
vertically. The name and body frames could have been combined (they have
the same cell size),but it would have required somewhat more care in
calculating the locations and sizes of these frames.

	The first pie, with kid's activities by child, was created with the
Pie->New menu item, followed by use of several Wedge menu items to adjust the
first wedge. All wedges have a small explode value to make them visible in a
monochrome print. If multiple colors were available for printing, this would
not be necessary. The Wedge->Insert After item was used to create the second
and third wedges. The fonts were adjusted to correspond to those used in the
header frame, to make it easier to see the correspondence between the entries
in the frame and the entries in the pie. The second pie was created in a
similar fashion, using six wedges for each of the six days represented in
the frame. Here again, the fonts were adjusted to correspond to the left
frame's day of the week labels.