Corporate Tables is a tool for easily creating and designing on-brand tables that can be inserted into Word, PowerPoint and Excel. We are able to customize the overall table design as well as highlighting rows, columns and cells with a specific design. We save the templates as a .json file in the Content folder.
Contents
Get started
To get started using Corporate Tables, add the module and plugin to the SDUP concerned.
Module is located here:
...\SD.Installers\AlloyPlugins\ModuleLibrary\CorporateTables2\01_nocontext_Corporate Tables
Notice that there is a readme.txt file in this path. Please read this before configuration as it contains relevant information - and do not copy this readme.txt file into the client's SDUP.
Make sure to have the latest plugin by right-clicking the SDUP and select this:
Logic in folders
A folder named SkabelonDesign.CorporateTables must be located in the Content folder in the SDUP.
Inside this folder, the different templates must be located: 1) one folder named tables, where the table template(s) must be saved (note the order of these files will reflect the order in Office), and 2) one folder named colors, where the color template(s) must be saved. If the client needs options to highlight or format rows, columns or cells, folders for such templates must be located here as well, but should only be included if used.
Configuration of templates
As mentioned, we save all templates as .json files.
Before you start configuring a Corporate Tables solution, ensure that you have Visual Studio Code installed on your pc. This is the app we use for configuration.
Firstly, you should configure your color template so all colors needed are in place.
Use our default table template when you are about to start your table configuration. If your configuration should include highlight/format options for rows, columns and cells, use this default template.
You should never grab a configuration from another client's solution since all configurations are very client specific.
When you are ready to start configuring your templates, make sure to use the following articles as they thoroughly describe how to configure table, row, column and cell templates, including the different properties that can be set:
If the client has multiple designs for either the entire table, rows, columns, or cells, we are able to point to only one of these in the module. Read more about defining the root in this article.
Configuration of module
Ribbon Buttons
The module should consist of a special button within a dynamic menu that ensures to load the template(s) within the tables folder.
<DynamicMenu label="SkabelonDesign.CorporateTables:ct_createTable">
<Button special="SkabelonDesign.CorporateTables:Table"
icon="TableStylesGalleryExcel"
previewAsIcon="true">
...
</Button>
<DynamicMenu>
The special will create a separate button for each CorporateTable option. It also allows for a 'preview' of the table style to be used as the button Icon. This preview is created by reading the CT config itself. Note that it is of course difficult to display the full effects of a table style within an icon so this option should be used sparingly. All other parameters typical of button and menu configurations are also applicable.
Parameters
previewAsIcon
This is an optional boolean parameter. Defining this as true
renders an image of the table design as the buttons icon and ignores the icon parameter. Defining this as false
or omitting the parameter will instead allow the button use the icon defined in the icon parameter.
Command
The following command will then apply the selected table template - either insert a new table or format selected table (depends on what is defined in the parameter):
<Cmd case="SkabelonDesign.CorporateTables:Table" CreateFormat="x"/>
If the client has several table designs, the button special should be placed within a dynamic menu in order to ensure that all of the templates are presented in a drop down menu.
Parameters
CreateFormat
This parameter is optional.
There are two values for this parameter: Create
and Format
. Define whether the command should create a new table or format an existing one. If this parameter is not used, it will do both: create a new table, if nothing is selected, and format an existing table, if it is selected.
CanPickUseHeadingColumn
This parameter is optional.
If this parameter is defined to be true
, a checkbox with the ability to use heading column is added to the dialog. If false
or not used, the checkbox will not appear.
CanPickHeaderRowCount
This parameter is optional.
If this parameter is defined to be true
, the user will be able to select the amount of heading rows in the table. If false
or not used, the counter will not appear.
ApplyBlankBorders
This parameter is optional and only used for PowerPoint.
If this parameter is defined to be true
, the command will apply blank borders before doing anything in PowerPoint, and thus ensure that blank borders are applied to the table. In this way, the table will contain gridlines when the cells are selected, just like in native tables.
Note that the template should not contain visible=false
on base borders, since this will overrule the "guide"/"not visible" behavior.
Version
This parameter is optional and is only used for Word.
We have been forced to introduce a new version of Corporate Tables due to one decision made in early process that has too much of an impact on the existing configuration across the Office platform.
If this parameter is not set or is set below 3, margin properties in the json will set before/after spacing and indent. Define this parameter to 3
if the margin properties in the json should set the cell margins.
Direct formatting will always win over the WordStyle
property, for which reason we no longer recommend to use this property (if using version 3), but it will still be an option.
Notice that this parameter also applies for the command cases regarding rows, columns, and cells (see below).
This parameter is ignored in PowerPoint and Excel.
Configuration of module for rows, columns and cells
Modules for row, column and cell templates should be configured in the same way as for table templates, meaning that it is necessary to use a special button. Make sure to replace "Table" in the special parameter with either "Row", "Column" or "Cell" depending on the module.
When a client has design for rows, columns and cells, we must configure modules to apply these with the following commands:
Rows: <Cmd case="SkabelonDesign.CorporateTables:Row"/>
This command will apply a row design to the selected row.
Columns: <Cmd case="SkabelonDesign.CorporateTables:Column"/>
This command will apply a column design to the selected column.
Cells: <Cmd case="SkabelonDesign.CorporateTables:Cell"/>
This command will apply the design meant for cells, to the specific selected cells in a table.
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