I mentioned in a previous post that I still use Microsoft FrontPage to create and edit web pages. Over the years I have tried out other such editors with varying degrees of success. I have more recently been renewing those efforts but I have reached a stumbling block. Help?
Since dabbling with Ubuntu Linux I discovered the BlueGriffon WYSWYG editor (also available for Windows) that can apparently be used not only for creating and editing HTML documents, but EPUB files also; that might come in handy at some point*, but for now web pages…
Let’s say I create a page and put a table on that page. How can I insert text above that table? (without dabbling in the HTML or cutting the table, typing what I want and then pasting the table below).
In FrontPage I can click in the top left-most cell of the table and press Enter/Return and it will drop the table down a line ready for me to type there, but in BlueGriffon this doesn’t work. I have also tried NVU, another web page editor and that has the same issue. In both the new line is inserted within the table, not what I want.
I have searched online for an answer but only find solutions for Microsoft Word which don’t work here; to use CTRL+Shift+Enter instead.
Pressing Enter/Return in a table in LibreOffice works fine also.
Answers on a postcard in the comments box below please.
[EDIT] I have since tried Microsoft’s Expression Web which replaced FrontPage but itself was expired some years ago. This is now freely available online. It behaves and appears somewhat different to FrontPage and the above issue is found here too surprisingly. However, with a bit of jiggery-pokery it is possible to insert a blank line above a table in Expression Web:
- Click in the table and use the back arrow key to move the cursor until it can go no further, then press Return.
- If you are trying to insert a blank line between two tables then back arrow the cursor until just prior to it appearing the table cell above, then press Return.
I have tried this in BlueGriffon and NVU, but sadly no success. Indeed, if you place a table at the top of a page in these you can’t create a space above it by pressing Return in the first cell.
While BlueGriffon is free to use, it is disappointing that the user manual is not freely available and must be purchased, neither do they host a discussion forum. Perhaps there is a solution to the above in the manual, but I doubt it. Since I have not paid for a manual I am reluctant to contact them about this issue. Their bugs/suggestions/requests link is not currently working.
*The EPUB add-on comes with a hefty price tag also. I had wrongly assumed BlueGriffon was open source.
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Not sure whether you mean putting the text in a full-width cell which is at the top of the table and part of it (which can be tricky) or simply placing a line of text before an existing table which is at the top of the page.
If the latter, I think I know what you mean because it can also be a problem in Word. My work around it in Word is to delete the table, add a line of text, then past back the table below the text. (I think you can also use the split table feature but I find my method easier).
On a web page I’d simply go to the html version and type the text before the tag with one or more tags to separate it.
Yes, placing a line of text before an existing table is what I’m finding problematic; I use tables a lot on web pages and your solutions are what I’m trying to avoid. FrontPage for the most part handles this, I find it odd that something far more current does not.
In Word (which is similar to FrontPage in many ways) you put the cursor in the first cell and two new tabs appear on the right at the top (Design and Layout). If you select Layout, then one of the options on the ribbon that goes with that is Split Table. It inserts a new line above the top of the table or, if you are in a cell lower down, inserts a new line in the middle of the table. Does FrontPage have something similar?
FrontPage is pre-ribbon menu, but the issue I’m having is with BlueGriffon/NVU. It is also possible to create a new row in a table by pressing the Tab key. I think I’ll have to go with your previous suggestions of either cutting the table or delving into the HTML.
http://www.599cd.com/tips/frontpage/splitting-a-table.asp (with cursor in a top cell). I’ll shut up about it now.