How do tables work?

[Graham Samuel]

On Mon, 2 Jun 2003 08:32:48 -0700  "Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" 
<jeanne at runrev.com> wrote:
>
>  >What is meant by 'using'? Is this a place for a formatting string,
>>and if so, how specified?
>>
>>What is the field below this with the 'update' and 'add' buttons?
>>
>>IMHO it's no good having powerful new features if nobody tells us how
>>to use them.
>
>You can find the answers to these questions in the topic "How to format
>numbers in a table field". (This topic is listed under "User Interaction"
>on the Development Guide page of the main documentation window. A search in
>the How To window for "table" will also turn it up.)

Jeanne, believe me I really do think that the RR documentation is 
good and clear in general, and I am not by nature a moaner, but in 
this case I think the location of the information is rather like 
Douglas Adams' document that was on public display "in a locked 
filing cabinet marked 'beware of the Leopard' in a dark cellar with 
no stairs"...

It would be a lot easier if there was an entry called 'Tables and how 
to use them' or something like that, and maybe a cookbook entry that 
showed a table being used as a very primitive spreadsheet with say 
two data types. The existing text doesn't tell me what the 'update' 
and 'add' buttons do (I found out by experiment that it 
adds/subtracts to/from a list of formatting for individual cells), 
nor the purpose of the field just above the word 'using' (it's some 
kind of reference to the cell, but I don't understand the format 
exactly), and, because there is no complete description of what kind 
of an object a table really is, I also don't understand what can 
really go in a cell. I DO understand that you can set a property 
which allows a user to edit a cell, from this "How to.." entry:

To allow cell editing in a table field, in the "Table" pane of the 
field's property inspector, check the box labeled "Cell Editing". 
When you click a cell in the table field, a box appears to let you 
edit the cell's content.

However, I have not been able to make that box appear. I did manage 
to set the format of a cell to 'short' for a date, and then to enter 
a date, but then when I entered something else (just any old text) I 
couldn't see the table objecting to this in any way, so I don't quite 
know what the formatting is for or how (or if) it's checked. And 
finally I do not understand which of the properties of the table can 
be set by script - I would guess 'all', but I would not know how to 
set about it.

Again apologies for the complaining tone, but I am finding learning 
RR 2.0 rather frustrating...

Graham
-- 
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          Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK & France