Table Properties

There are three property dialogs for controlling table properties, one for an entire table, one for a table row and one for a table cell. There is only a single entry on the Properties Menu for Table Properties. Which dialog opens depends on the current selection. Each of these property dialogs is the default for the table, row and cell templates respectively. Thus, they can also be opened by double clicking the corresponding MathML elements in the MathML Ancestry panel.

In MathFlow editor, you generally don't deal directly with table rows and cells. However, rows and cells are nonetheless present in the underlying MathML. Most properties only apply to a table as a whole and won't be active if only a row is selected. Row alignment and column alignment, however, may be set for the whole table, a row, or for just a single cell. Consequently, the properties panels for table rows and cells consist of just these two properties. Since the meaning of the property values are the same in all three dialogs, we discuss them altogether with the rest of the table properties.

Table properties are divided into three tab-separated sections: Spacing, Alignment and Lines.

The first tab, Spacing, is shown here:

The Spacing tab allows you to modify the following table properties:

Row Spacing and Column Spacing

Setting the row and column spacing determines how much spacing is inserted between the individual rows and columns of a table. Column and row spacing can have multiple values in the same manner as row and column lines. In other words, you can specify the spacing for all rows or columns using one value or specify space-separated values for each row or column in the table. If there are fewer values than rows or columns, the last value for the remaining rows and columns is used. These properties accept MathML size values and can only be set for the entire table.

For further documentation, see the MathML spec. For row spacing and column spacing, entries in the "values" column have a plus next to them, which means you can enter values for each column or row separated by a space. For example, if you have four columns, you could enter one value for Column Spacing in the dialog and that value would be applied to all the columns; or you could put in four different values, separated by a space, which would be applied to the columns in order.

Frame Spacing

You can control the spacing between the box frame and the table. The Frame Spacing property expects a list of two MathML size values separated by a space. The first value is the space between the table and the sides of the frame, while the second specifies the space between the top and bottom of the table and the frame.

Table Width

This property specifies the desired width of the entire table. When the value is set to "automatic," the width of the table will be calculated automatically, based on the layout of the table's contents. However, a user may also specify a numerical value for the table width, as well as a desired unit of measurement.

Minimum Label Spacing

This MathML property deals with the placement of equation numbers. MathML 2.0 introduced the concept of a "labeled table row". You can enter the mlabeledtr element by going into source view. This property will set the minimum appropriate attributes in the underlying MathML source, and change the rendering accordingly.

The second tab, Alignment, is shown in the figure below:

The Alignment tab allows you to modify the following table properties:

Alignment

This property determines the alignment of the entire table with respect to the surrounding equation. Use the drop-down menu to choose from the following 5 values:

axis -- align the center of the table with the math axis of the surrounding equation, i.e. the line through a minus sign.

top -- align the top of the table with the baseline of the surrounding equation

center -- align the center of the table with the baseline of the surrounding equation

bottom -- align the bottom of the table with the baseline of the surrounding equation

baseline -- same as center

Row Number

This property acts in conjunction with the Alignment property. You may select a particular row to align with respect to the surrounding equation.

Row Alignment and Column Alignment

These properties specify the vertical alignment of rows and the horizontal alignment of columns. They can be set for an entire table, a single row or column, or a single cell.

The syntax for the alignment values vary slightly in each of these situations. For a single cell, the accepted values for Column Alignment are "left", "center" and "right", and the accepted values for Row Alignment are "axis," "top," "center," "bottom," and "baseline."

However, when these properties are applied to more than one row or column, the value can be set to a list of values, which apply to the affected rows or columns in order. If there are fewer values in the list than the number of rows or columns, the last value is repeated for all remaining rows or columns.

Label Side

This MathML property again deals with the placement of equation numbers, in that it sets the label orientation attribute in the underlying MathML source, and changes the rendering accordingly. You can enter the mlabeledtr element by going into source view.

The third tab, Lines, is shown in the figure below:

The Lines tab allows you to modify the following table properties:

Row Lines and Column Lines

These properties determine what separator lines should be drawn and in what styles. Accepted values are "none," "solid," or "dashed." The value can be set to a list of values, which apply to the rows or columns in order. If there are fewer values in the list than the number of rows or columns, the last value is repeated for all remaining rows or columns.

Note that you may universally (in any of the three tabs) change the Equal Rows and Equal Columns properties.

Frame

This property determines whether a box should be drawn around the entire table. You can choose between solid and dashed line styles.

Equal Rows and Equal Columns

By enabling these properties, you can make all rows and/or all columns the same size. Ordinarily rows and columns grow or shrink depending on the size of the cells in them. Forcing rows or columns to be equal in size can be useful for some kinds of tabular alignment.