PianoPlayerTableHelp

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: PianoPlayer Table Help

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Usage 2.1 Reference Manual 2.1.1 Wikitable Wizard 2.1.2 Table Parameters 2.2 User Guide 2.3 Example Tables 2.3.1 Additional Examples 3 Bibliography 3.1 Acknowledgements 4 Sources

Purpose

What is known about creating tables. It may be -- probably is -- incomplete. It is based on what the piano player learned over several days of attempting to create tables in his Free Space Profiles, including the Examples in this FSP. The Table Wizard, available in the WikiTree Browser Extension was also helpful. Of most help was development of the tables in the Census Links.

Usage

This FSP is not like others . It does not provide source information. Rather, it provides help for creating tables in other profiles.^[1][2][3]

• [[ Space:PianoPlayerTableHelp ]] will provide a link like

PianoPlayerHelp ;

• [[ Space:PianoPlayerTableHelp#User Guide | User Guide]] will provide a link like

User Guide; and

• [[ Space:PianoPlayerTableHelp#Reference Manual | Reference Manual ]] will provide a link like

Reference Manual .

Reference Manual

Wikitable Wizard

• The Wizard is an exellent tool for creating tables. I've found, however, that it usually does'nt give me quite what I want. Table size is limited to either 100% of device width or dynamic, depending on data length. My table width preference is 80%, which gets manually changed later
• I frequently use the caption option -- successfully.
• I ignore the class options. In particular, WikiTree seems to think Wikitables should be sortable, period. In most cases my tables don't fit that paradigm. In fact, WikiTree makes a table sortable on all columns if the class Wikitable is specified whether or not sortable is in the table specification.

Table Parameters

These parameters are derived from the Family Search, Wikimedia and WikiTree help pages.^[2]

{-	Table Start Required
|+	optional; only between table start and table row
|-	table row' optional on first row—wiki engine assumes the first row
!	table header cell, optional. Consecutive table header cells may be added on same line separated by double marks (!!) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (!).
|	table data cell, optional. Consecutive table data cells may be added on same line separated by double marks (||) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (|).
|}	table end, required

There are several options that may be set for rows or single cells^[2]. Those options are:

• bgcolor=color This option overrides the default table background color on a cell or row basis.
• align=left/middle/right (columns with numbers look best aligned right). This option overrides the default alignment of pipe "|" (left) or bang "!" (center).
• valign=top/bottom this option overrides the default alignment of center

User Guide

The table below in Acknowledgements is an example of a table created using the steps in this User Guide. That table will be used as the basis for the Examples

1. Use the Wikitable Wizard to create the basic table;

   Choose a background color for the header row;

   (Optional) Choose background color for other rows, as appropriate;

2. Manually edit the Wizard's output
   1. (Optional) In the table header, set a width parameter.;

      Do NOT use fixed values, e.g. "pt", "em" for maximum compatibility across devices with varying screen sizes!

   2. (Optional) change pipes (|) to bangs (!) as desired;

   Pipes (|) provide left alignment of the cell; and

   Bangs (!) provide center alignment of the cell and also cause the row content to become bold;

   You may mix pipes (|) and bangs (!) within each row

3. Test!

   Repeat steps 2 through the end until you have the table you desire

Example Tables

The first table shows what the Wikitable wizard generated. No hand-coded changes have been made.

• Aside from cell content in the rows, the table definition options included

border width;

cellpadding; and

a bold table header (title).

• Row definition started by selecting the first row as a header row, followed by row specific options

Selecting bold cell text; and

choosing a row background color with thee color picker.

• It was necessary to use the tools "Add a row" option.

No Manual Changes

Source	Link
CSS Help	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E123456789
HTML/W3C	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E123456789
Family Search	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E123456789
Wikimedia	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E123456789
Wikipedia	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E123456789
All the WikiTree G2G contributors to threads on table creation and formatting.	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E123456789Ħ

Creation of the final result included all the steps above, followed by manually editing the tools output.

• A width="80%" parameter was added to the table definition.
• The hex value for the header row background color was changed to "LightGrey"
• The cell values for the header row were split into two lines

1. The first column was given parameter "width="20%"; and
2. The second column was allowed to span the remainer of the table width.

Final Result

Source	Link
CSS	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E
HTML/W3C	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E
Family Search	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E
Wikimedia	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Table
All the WikiTree G2G contributors to threads on table creation and formatting.	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E

The following table shows the effect of using the bang (!) instead of the pipe (|) character as the row's cell separator. The results are not as expected. As of 03/30/2024 (maybe before) the bang (!) is being interpreted by WikiTree not only for its centering aspect but as a bold text operator! This is true in both the Safari browser with WBE and my Firefox browser without WBE used for development and testing. The cell values look ok with the enhanced editor turned off. The Enhanced Editor shows the text as bold(?). Aesthetically, other than perhaps for header rows, centering cell content may not look the best.

Final Result -- With Bang (!)

Source	Link
CSS Color	https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_colors.php
G2G	https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1724043/table-format-inconsistent
HTML/W3C	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E
Family Search	https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Help:Tables
Wikimedia	TBD3456789B123456789C123456789D123456789E
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Table
All the WikiTree G2G contributors to threads on table creation and formatting.	https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1724043/table-format-inconsistent?show=1724043#q1724043

Additional Examples

Additional examples mav be found at Census tables ; Family Births  ; and Marriages.

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

• All the various online help pages for creating web content, including

Source	Link
CSS Color	https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_colors.php
HTML/W3C	https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_table.asp
Family Search	https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Help:Tables
Wikimedia	https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Tables&oldid=6302599
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Table
WikiTree	https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Editing_Tips#Tables
All the WikiTree G2G contributors to threads on table creation and formatting.	https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1724043/table-format-inconsistent

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Editing_Tips#Tables
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Tables&oldid=6302599
3. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Help:Tables