HTML Tables

Visual Studio provides good design-time support for creating HTML tables. To try it, drag a table from
the HTML tab of the Toolbox. You’ll start with a standard 3×3 table, but you can quickly transform it
using editing features that more closely resemble a word processor than a programming tool. Here are
some of the tricks you’ll want to use:
• To move from one cell to another in the table, press the Tab key or use the arrow
keys. The current cell is highlighted with a blue border. Inside each cell you can
type static HTML or drag and drop controls from the Toolbox. If you tab beyond
the final cell, Visual Studio adds a new row.
• To add new rows and columns, right-click inside a cell, and choose from one
of the many options in the Insert submenu to insert rows, columns, and
individual cells.
• To resize a part of the table, just click one of the borders and drag.

• To format a cell, right-click inside it, click the Style box in the Properties window,
and then click the ellipsis (…) button. This shows the same Modify Style dialog
box you saw in Figure 2-5.
• To work with several cells at once, hold down Ctrl while you click each cell. You
can then right-click to perform a batch formatting operation.
• To merge cells (for example, change two cells into one cell that spans two
columns), just select the cells, right-click, and choose Modify ➤ Merge Cells.
With these conveniences, you might never need to resort to a design tool like Dreamweaver or
Expression Web.