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Subject:Adobe Table in PageMaker? From:Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com, pollywise -at- fsvmail -dot- net Date:Tue, 20 Jan 2004 10:13:40 -0500
pollywise wondered: <<My company just purchased Adobe PageMaker 7.0 for
me. However, I cannot locate anywhere Adobe Table. Can anyone help me
to locate it?>>
Odds are good it's still on the installation CD; it's generally not
installed by default, and MIS people responsible for software
installations often miss it. On the whole, that's probably a good
thing, since it's not very good or useful software, and in my opinion,
causes more problems than it solves.
The most effective way to create tables in PageMaker is to create named
styles (e.g., "Table 1") that contain the type characteristics and the
tab stops you need to define the table's columns. Export the table
contents from the software you used to create them with the columns of
data separated by tabs. Then apply the style to this text and you've
got a table. Readjust the tab settings in the style definition until
the contents of the table line up as desired. Then use the drawing
tools to create horizontal and vertical rules, shading, etc. If memory
serves, you can even group the lines and the table text so that you can
treat them as a single object.
The advantage of treating tables in this manner? Well, you can
spellcheck the contents and apply styles based on the existing styles
in the document. Plus, you don't have to leave PageMaker and launch
Table each time you need to make a change, and it's easier to flow
tables across multiple columns.
One important note: Adobe has recently discontinued development of
PageMaker, and will shortly be trying to force everyone to migrate to
InDesign. They'll be offering a relatively inexpensive upgrade to
InDesign too. Given that InDesign is far, far superior to PageMaker and
represents the future of DTP at Adobe, you might want to upgrade right
now to InDesign rather than going through a second learning curve in
the future.
Haven't heard whether they're planning a cheap upgrade to Frame. Anyone
know?
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
