[pmwiki-users] WYSIWYG is Indispensable; Moment of Truth

[Oliver Betz]

Petko Yotov wrote:

>> Ever tried to insert a column in HTML or Wiki markup? It's a PITA.
>> Even entering or modifying data is extremly inconvenient in markup.
>
>I have found it easier to split the columns of large simple tables with \ and 
>start them on new lines preceded by 2 spaces, something like:
>
>|| row 1 col 1 \
>  || row 1 col 2 \
>  || row 1 col 3 \
>  || row 1 col 4 \
>  ||
>|| row 2 col 1 \
>  || row 2 col 2 \
>  || row 2 merged cols 3 and 4 \
>  ||||
>
>This way I see where each row starts, and I see where each comumn starts -- if 
>a line in the textarea does not start with || or with space-||, it is a part 
>of the previous line which wrapped.

although you don't get lost as easy, inserting (or removing) a column
in a long table of data points is still a PITA.

>If I had to manipulate tables with even more complex or large data, I would 
>probably enter the data rows into different pages as PageTextVariables. For 

Interesting idea. But consider horizontally _and_ vertically related
data, e.g. measurements from experiments with two variable parameters.
A "visual" table editor is priceless in this case.

Editing table data externally, using Text2Tbl or ConvertHTML, is an
workaround.

Oliver