iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Making Tables

Tables are efficient containers for displaying a large amount of data, creating forms, or quickly formatting a page full of pictures. A table is a grid of information constructed from rows and columns that slice-n-dice the table into blocks called cells. Table cells have some special math know-how, as you’ll see on Making Mini-Spreadsheets with Formulas, but you can use them to organize just about any kind of info. Each cell can contain a chunk of text or numbers—or even other objects like pictures and shapes. Pages can dress up tables or individual cells with borders and color, or with image fills for backgrounds. You can create very simple plain-text tables—as you might otherwise do by simply using the Tab key to create basic columns—or something more elaborate, complete with color and pictures, that looks nothing like a table at first glance. Figure 8-1 shows a few examples.

Figure 8-1. You can make tables that are just columns of facts and figures, but with Pages’ table-making abilities—combined with your imagination—it’s easy to create forms, catalogs, photo layouts, and oodles more. The tables pictured here are examples from Pages’ built-in templates, which are good places to start exploring table creation. Clockwise from the top: Sailing Newsletter, Catering Brochure, Catalog, Lab Notes, and Real Estate Newsletter.

You can add tables to a Pages document as either ...