Tips on Tables in Wikispaces: A Word to the Wise

From a Skype chat transcript with Cindy Barnsley of Australia, who is talking with Mira in Serbia and probably right now emailing Ed in Shanghai to start the next 1001 Tales workshop cycle for the high school level:

Tables in wikispaces are a bit annoying, but working without them would be worse still. Things to be aware of (they're easy once you know):

1. To add a column or row, just click inside a cell adjacent to where you want to insert a new one.

You'll see a one vertical, and one horizontal, circle with an X in it (meaning "delete), and on each side of that circle you'll see left/right arrows (add column left/right) on the horizontal, and up/down arrows (add row above/below) on the vertical one. Use those to add or delete rows or columns.

2. IMPORTANT: I learned this the hard way. You CANNOT copy a row or column and paste its content into another row or column. It will foul up your table. Unfortunately, it seems you can only enter text into a cell one at a time.

3. IMPORTANT: Clicking "return" or "enter" to start a new line WITHIN a cell will not work in tables. So you have to make a new row every time you want to start a new line. Not a biggie, but best to know now instead of frustrate later.

4. GOOD STUFF: You CAN embed widgets (html stuff like podcasts, clocks) and files (photos, whatever) inside table cells. That can be handy.

That's about it for tables.

Hope that helps. --Clay