How to make a table in a publishing program

Tables are built into Publish by Zaweba. Insert a table, add or delete rows and columns, set borders and cell shading, merge cells where you need wider headings, and pick one of six table designs to style it in one go. The app is free, runs offline on Windows and needs no account.

Tables turn up on price lists, timetables, fixture lists, menus and opening hours. In a layout app they sit in their own frame, so you can move the whole table around the page like any other item.

Building the table

Insert a table and type into the cells. Add or delete rows and columns as your information grows. Borders and cell shading let a header row stand apart from the rest of the table.

One thing to know: rows don't grow automatically as you type. If a cell has more text than fits, use the fit rows to text option to make the rows tall enough. It's worth doing once you've finished typing rather than after every change.

Merging cells

Merge right, Merge down and Split are in the Properties panel. Merge right joins a cell with the one beside it, which is how you get a heading that spans two columns. Merge down joins a cell with the one below, useful for a label that covers several rows, such as a day of the week on a timetable.

The text of merged cells is kept, so you won't lose anything by merging. Split undoes a merge. You can't merge by dragging across cells; select the cell and use the buttons.

Table designs

Six table designs restyle the whole table at once. They include a header row style, banded rows, light lines and no borders. Banded rows help on long lists, where the eye can slip from one row to the next. Light lines suit a clean, modern look. No borders works for a simple two-column list such as a menu, where the alignment alone holds it together.

Pick a design first, then adjust individual cells if you need to. That's quicker than styling every border by hand.

Getting a table to look right on the page

Keep the text in tables short. A price list reads best with an item name and a price, not a paragraph in every cell.

Align numbers consistently. Prices look tidier when they all line up in the same way down the column.

Leave space around the table. Text wrap keeps body text from crowding it, and the guides and snapping help line it up with other frames.

Use the document palette for shading colours. Named colours mean that if you change the house colour, the table's header row follows.

Where tables fit with the rest of the app

Find and replace searches every table cell as well as stories and master pages, so updating a price that appears in several places is one step.

The templates for a price list and for restaurant and cafe menus are good starting points if your table is part of a bigger design. They give you the page layout, and you put your own table in.

When you export, tables come out as real text in the PDF, so a customer can copy a price or search for a dish.

Start with a small table of three or four rows, try a couple of the designs, and then fill it in.