Quick Reference LinksGet HTML table hereGet forum table here -----------
Formatting tables here sucks. Fortunately, there's a good work around. This will be a step by step guide to making your tables look wonderful (and it's easier than fiddling with the forum code!).
Let's say I want to post a table, such as the following:
Month Name Days
1 Jan 31
2 Feb 28
3 Mar 31
4 Apr 30
5 May 31
6 Jun 30
7 Jul 31
8 Aug 31
9 Sep 30
10 Oct 31
11 Nov 30
12 Dec 31
This is copied straight from Excel and, as you can tell, looks... bad.
Getting it into a meaningful format is a two step process. First, go to
this website which lets you convert your Excel table to an html table. Make sure to select
Top Row under header style and
HTML table under Style. Hitting "Create Table" causes it to look like:
Now, this html isn't really helpful either by itself.
<table><tbody><tr><th>Month</th><th>Name</th><th>Days</th></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>Jan</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Feb</td><td>28</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Mar</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Apr</td><td>30</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>May</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Jun</td><td>30</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Jul</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Aug</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Sep</td><td>30</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Oct</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Nov</td><td>30</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Dec</td><td>31</td></tr></tbody></table>
Fortunately... there is a site which converts HTML code into forum code.
Go here and copy all that html into the conversion box. Make sure to select
SMF Code and the
code/code tag and hit convert.
Now, copy the ugly looking output into here, and you will see something like:
[table][tr][td]Month[/td][td]Name[/td][td]Days[/td][/tr][tr][td]1[/td][td]Jan[/td][td]31[/td][/tr][tr][td]2[/td][td]Feb[/td][td]28[/td][/tr][tr][td]3[/td][td]Mar[/td][td]31[/td][/tr][tr][td]4[/td][td]Apr[/td][td]30[/td][/tr][tr][td]5[/td][td]May[/td][td]31[/td][/tr][tr][td]6[/td][td]Jun[/td][td]30[/td][/tr][tr][td]7[/td][td]Jul[/td][td]31[/td][/tr][tr][td]8[/td][td]Aug[/td][td]31[/td][/tr][tr][td]9[/td][td]Sep[/td][td]30[/td][/tr][tr][td]10[/td][td]Oct[/td][td]31[/td][/tr][tr][td]11[/td][td]Nov[/td][td]30[/td][/tr][tr][td]12[/td][td]Dec[/td][td]31[/td][/tr][/table]
Which, when put into the forum, results in a very nice table where all the columns are aligned and are much easier to read:
Month | Name | Days |
1 | Jan | 31 |
2 | Feb | 28 |
3 | Mar | 31 |
4 | Apr | 30 |
5 | May | 31 |
6 | Jun | 30 |
7 | Jul | 31 |
8 | Aug | 31 |
9 | Sep | 30 |
10 | Oct | 31 |
11 | Nov | 30 |
12 | Dec | 31 |