G2G: May we please have a button for tables?

Question

In a profile's Edit Text section there are buttons for Bold, Italics, Web links, Citations.  May we please have a button for creating a table (which allows you to select the desired number of columns and rows)?  Or does something similar already exist?

Comments

Yes please.

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I agree such a button would be handy.

Are you aware of the "table maker"? You will need to have your data already in Excel or other spreadsheet program, but it works nicely for creating the mark-up needed to present the data in a table on profiles.  Tables

Another resource here I've found useful re tables is Mindy Silva's Table Help

Ron Pavey's WikiTree Sourcer app produces tables from some data on index pages on other websites, such as FamilySearch and Ancestry. It is just about as automatic as a button would be for creating census data tables, for example. 

Answer 1

The WBE Wikitable Wizard is now live in Chrome, Firefox, and iOS (still waiting for Apple App Store to approve the update for macOS). 

Comments

I tried to use this but did not get a table. See: 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:1847_Emigration_Schwenningen_to_America#Passengers_by_Ship

It appears to be missing some opening template coding with which I am not familiar.

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I came back to this after a break, and tried again. (By the way, the instructions do not match what is on the edit screen; there is no "Biography" but I did find the table wizard under "Content".)

This time, I selected cell border=1 and padding=1 as well as the other options there.

I selected "paste entire table" but it wasn't clear WHERE to paste it. I clicked on one of the table cells and pasted (from the google spreadsheet) there; the result is that the entire table went into one cell, instead of pasting across multiple cells, as expected.

Edited to add: I tried doing the same thing from the iOS application Numbers and got the same results. There does not appear to be a way to paste across the cells.

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If you're talking about the passenger tables that you have, I've fixed the app to recognise them (and I've added the tables to the space page) (I'm still working on it, though, so I haven't uploaded the update).

When you have a table in your system clipboard (you've copied a table), hitting 'Paste Table or List' should read your clipboard and add the contents to the editor.  Copy this simple example and hit the Paste Table or List button in the Wizard and you should see what I mean.

Edit: I've finished my fixing, but I can't upload an update at the moment.

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Ian, thanks so much.

I was able to generate a table with the simple example.

But pasting the larger table in the same way with the existing (pre updated) version continues to result in only "undefined".

Makes me think that the app doesn't like larger spreadsheets. But I look forward to testing your updated version.

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FYI: I'm using Safari on an iPad.

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I tried another test, just with the first couple of rows of the larger table.  It recognized the paste this time.  But for some reason, it added an header row that does not exist in the original spreadsheet.

I wonder if the app does not like the line breaks within cells that happens later? The external converter didn't like them either-- made new rows for them (which I fixed manually). But clearly your updated version (that you used) treated the in-cell line breaks just fine.

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But pasting the larger table in the same way with the existing (pre updated) version continues to result in only "undefined".

Not really surprising.  That's why I've just fixed it.  

Makes me think that the app doesn't like larger spreadsheets.

It's not the size of the spreadsheet but the complexity of it that matters.  You could have a very large spreadsheet like the simple example and it would be fine.  I've seen some complex tables on WT that the Wizard can't handle, but for most cases, I think it works well.  One of the problems with yours was the line breaks within cells.  If you paste in the simple example, each line of the text received by the app has a line break at the end.  The code would then split the text into lines according to the line breaks.  Having extra line breaks within a cell broke this.  There may have been a couple more small things, but I've sorted this out.    

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I hadn't seen your latest comment when I posted mine.

The extra header is an attempt to help.  Sometimes, it's good. There's a checkbox above that says 'Add generated headers'.  You can uncheck that to remove that row.

Yes.  I've added something to deal with the line breaks.

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Thanks so much, Ian.

Answer 2

I'm assuming this would be for biographies, as there's already a "table" function in G2G.

And I would agree that tables are challenging if you're not comfortable coding. Although you can copy an existing table and make minor modifications to it to let you use it how you prefer. But it would be much simpler if you could just select a button and go from there. Adding in column headers, field types, etc. might still have to be done manually with too simple a tool, so this might be a bit more complicated than it first seems to be.

Hopefully Jamie can let us know if this is something already on the list, and the level of complexity involved.

Answer 3

I have been working on making tables since about the 26th of June this year. I have already made a table for 7600+ servicemen from the 95th Bomber Group from WWII. I am now working on the almost 3000 men & putting them in squads & planes respectively. I have created all these tables by hand & quite frankly, I am sick of making tables!!!

I have committed to making these tables for the squads, but it is so slow going. Plus, other things are happening around the Tree & I need to be in other places. Other than taking a certain amount of time out of the rest of what's going on to make them, tables don't get a whole lot of TLC right now.

I would like to add my request for a table button so I can do something besides make tables! I have heard about the table maker in Chrome, but I don't know how that works. I have all the EXTs & APPs that WikiTree puts out on all 3 browsers (Chrome, Firefox & Edge), but the only "buttons" I have for my browser to do the Sourcer is Firefox. I don't know how to engage the WikiTree function (for a clickable button to use it like on Firefox) to even activate what I have there, let alone anything that works the table function.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel or am I going to be making tables till the day I die & bequeath my unfinished commitment to 1 of my kids?

Comments

Hi Pat.  I've sent you a link to a file I made with the bombers' details.  If you haven't seen it, please check your spam folder.

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Sorry; sourcing. Saw the email but haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Have to do that a day or so AFTER Monday so eyes can see & brain can process by then. Thanks for your help with this. I liked the 1st iteration in the sandbox, I'm sure this 1 will fit the bill too.

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Oh, you should take a quick look.  I think you'll like it. 

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What "md" app do i need to be looking for to open it?

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If you're having a problem with the extension, you can just change the extension to 'txt' and open it in any text editor (such as Notepad).

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THAT I can do, BRB to let you know ...

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Is that ALL that I have left?!?!?! That is AWEOME!!! Now what do I do with it? Will it go in the Sandbox so we can see what it looks like? If so, how so? I put it in the sandbox & it took forever to save, but never got the yellow saved banner (despite saving twice) & nothing was there on the front side when I went to check it out. But hey, TABLES! I'm so excited!!

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I think it's all of the people on the site for whom there is data (including the people you already have).  Yes, I imagine there is much too much text for one page. You should make a few (maybe several) pages.

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Ok, will do! Wow! I'd rather figure the logistics of the tables than make them at this point. Thank you SO much for this! This is AWESOME!!!

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You're welcome.