Hi Henry,
The way I go about setting tables in Voice is easy once you understand the mechanics.
What I would suggest that you do is create a "page" in your system that you can experiment with, try certain concepts out and if they don't work youcan delete without anyone knowing. If you create a page set the permissions to read, contribute, etc to you only. That way when the page is published only you can see it.
Tables:
Create the table in the normal way, from your example I assume that you want 13 columns and 4 rows. Type in these figures and then make sure that Width is set to 100% it is important that you use the percentage sign. You will then have 13 equally spaced columns matching your webpage. Now you want to make the first column wider (different) from the other 12. If you use your mouse and "right-click" in the first top left-hand cell a menu will pop up: navigate down to cell and then Table Cell Properties. Change the width to, say 25% (again using the percentage sign). Instead of Update Current Cell, use the drop down list and click update all cells in column. The first column will be wider than the rest, which will all be of equal size.
Hope this helps
Alan Parry
Thanks Alan. I will follow your advice and experiment.
What I have noticed though, is that starting a table from scratch is more consistent when changing these properties, than using a table that I have copied and pasted a table from Microsoft Word as an example.
I will post any significant conclusions.
Hi Henry,
My advice is to format tables from within Voice, don't copy and paste in from Word. I tried this once and got into an awful mess.
Hopefully, by setting the tables parameters to 100% at the outset when the table is originally created will appear to cover the whole of the web-page, irrespective of the screen size of the person viewing it.
All other columns should be defined in terms of percentages, if you want more than one irregularly sized column (e.g. four column table could be set at 25%, 30%, 25% and 20% - this adds up to 100).
My idea of a personal test page also works, as I can try things out that only I can see, and see how it appears when published. If it works I can re-name the test page, change the permissions and re-publish. If it doesn't work, I can always delete a test page. (And if and when necessary I can always create another as long as the permissions to view are restricted to me only.)
Thanks Alan, again,
A point to note is that I need a table in a Noticeboard Entry. The editor is not as comprehensive when compared to Pages.
Henry,
As far as I know you cannot create a table in a Noticeboad entry. If that is your aim I would create a table in Word/Excel and then use a screen snippet tool to capture the table as an image (gif or jpeg file). Upload this image file into the Voice system and when in Noticeboard import the file image along with an explanatory text.
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your comment and previous advice.
I have learnt from you and managed to create a table that satisfies my need in a Noticeborad Entry.
Thanks again.
Hi Alan - you seem to know a lot about tables so I hope you don't mind me asking a different question. I can't seem to set the cell padding anymore. I'm sure I used to - now I have tried manually putting a space between the border and first text letters, but that doesn't work with any wrapped text - the word is butted up to the border - despite there being a cell padding of 10 for the whole table. Help 
. Eileen x
Hi Helen
Again trial and error. I didn't know the answer so I have experimented on my private test page.
Suggest you set up the table using the system (again setting the width to 100% (as described above)). In Table properties (General tab) I created a table comprising 4 columns & 10 rows. Against Cell Padding I set a figure of 20 and in Cell Spacing I also used 20. I then opened the Advanced Tab, so I could monitor where the border was in relation to the input text I set the Border Colour to #000000 (in other words black).
If the table is not displayed then do not dispair. You may find it has been concertinered into a single square blob on the left-hand side if the screen. With your mouse carefully left-click where you think the top left-hand cell should been and add some text (eg. "qwerty"), then using your tab key go to the next "bunched up" cell and repeat adding text, and so on until the whole table is revealed.
Once the table was created and using the right-hand mouse button I clicked the 1st top left-hand cell; this brings up a menu. Because I wanted in this instance for all the cells to be of equal size I went down the drop-down menu to Cell and then Table Cell Properties and in the width box I set a figure of 25% and above the Update Box I used the dropdown menu to pick Update all cells in the table (4 columns at 25% each = 100%).
Now my table had been set up I needed to test whether the padding had worked. I needed to put some text in the cells (I used some gibberish - Qwerty 1234.) I just hightligthed this gibberish text and using the "crtl+C keys" made a copy of it. Then to insert my gibberish text I used the "crtl+v" keys repeatedly to paste the copied text several times into each cell to test how it would look when published. In reality it didn't matter what I typed as it was never going to be published. When you add text into the cells it looks like it is right up against the borders of the cell and that one cell's text runs into the adjoining cell. When you are inputting data you may get doubts about the cell padding. Fear not as this is not the case. When I saved the page with my table full of gibberish text and then previewed it there was a definite space between the text in each of the cells and the black border.
Hopefully, you'll get the same results.
PS. If you don't want the black border outlining the table or cells return to the Advance Tab in Cell Properties and remove the colour code #000000.
PPS. If you want a distinctive border then in table properties set the Border box to a number probably greater than 3 but less than 10.
Let me know how you get on.
Thanks for the comprehensive response, Alan, I'll give it a go tomorrow. E x
Hi Alan. Didn't work for me. Only an outer frame, cell padding in all bar the first columns - but there are a few other "funnies" about how my test table is displaying that is making me wonder about possible settings in the CSS framework our website developer might have put in, so I'll go and "bother" her for some tuition...... Thanks again. Eileen x
Hi Eileen,
If you got some cell padding then you must almost be there.
Try going back into your table and this time select a cell that doesn't have the padding and put in the same numbers into the Table Properties that you used for the successful cell. Then when go to Update make sure you select from the dropdown menu the update all cells in the table option.
It's all about trial and error. I hadn't needed cell padding in the couple of tables that I have, so your question was a new challenge. For me it was all about experimentation to find out the limits of the system. But after several attempts I got the cell padding worked out. It didn't look like it was working when I was inputting data, but when I went to Preview and then Publish the cell padding was certainly there.
Anyway good luck.
All the best,
Alan
Hi Alan - I got my answer during a session with our resident e-voice guru today. I needed to go into the table's general properties and set the Class to "Table". All sorted now. There is such a long list of classes I didn't think to mess with that one! E x
Hi Eileen,
Now you have taught me something.
Thanks for the update
All the best
Alan
Hi Alan,
Please where is the documentation on formating Tables? Or, is it done by discovery, intuition and right-clicking?
Hi Henry
Trial and error, and a bit of luck.
Having a private page to work on means that you can experiment with ideas without anyone knowing. If in doubt right-clicking usually comes up with a menu or possibly solution whether you are in Voice or Microsoft Word.
There are so many functions on the system that I feel that I have only scratched the surface. My latest challenge is around Sliders, but I'm having difficulty with resizing the images I want to use.
An online manual of functions and functionality would certainly not go amiss.
Alan