Some suggestions if you want to use tables on Bitcointalk

[1miau]

Tables are always useful if you want to share content in lists and improve the way how it is displayed. For each row you can list the related information instead of posting each information in a new line. That will help to keep your post short and clear instead of a long list.

Comparison:


Normal Formatting style:

Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin
Ticker: BTC
Price: $10,900
Circulating supply: 17,700,000 BTC
Marketcap: $193,000,000,000
Mineable?: yes

Cryptocurrency: Ethereum
Ticker: ETH
Price: $310
Circulating supply: 106,600,000 ETH
Marketcap: $33,000,000,000
Mineable?: yes


Table:

Cryptocurrency	Ticker	Price (in $)	Circulating supply	Marketcap (in $)	Mineable?
_________________	__________	____________	___________________	____________________	_____________
Bitcoin	BTC	10,900	17,700,000 BTC	193,000,000,000	yes
Ethereum	ETH	310	106,600,000 ETH	33,000,000,000	yes

Some good table layouts


Formatting tables can be a little bit tricky sometimes, here are some of my preferred layouts to keep the table clear and easy to read:




1. Using ___ for your table layout

xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx
_________________	_________________	_________________	_________________	_________________	_________________
xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]_________________[/td]
[td]_________________[/td]
[td]_________________[/td]
[td]_________________[/td]
[td]_________________[/td]
[td]_________________[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]xxx[/td]
[td]xxx[/td]
[td]xxx[/td]
[td]xxx[/td]
[td]xxx[/td]
[td]xxx[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

The _____ will guarantee that your table has enough space between columns. If you want to have more / less space between your columns just add / delete a few _


If you don't add them your table will look like that:  

Cryptocurrency	Ticker	Price (in $)	Circulating supply	Marketcap (in $)	mineable?
Bitcoin	BTC	10,900	17,700,000 BTC	193,000,000,000	yes
Ethereum	ETH	310	106,600,000 ETH	33,000,000,000	yes

(not very nice in my opinion)


You can add as much other columns to the table by just adding 1x

Code:

[td][b]xxx[/b][/td]

to the header of the table and

Code:

[td]xxx[/td]

to the content of the table. And don't forget to add

Code:

[td]__________________[/td]

if you've added a new column.




2. Using | for your table layout


You can also use | for your table layout:

xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|
xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

3. Using ___ and | for your table layout


Of course, you can also use both:

xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|
_________________	|	_________________	|	_________________	|	_________________	|	_________________	|	_________________	|
xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|	xxx	|

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[td][b]xxx[/b][/td] [td]|[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]_________________[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]_________________[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]_________________[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]_________________[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]_________________[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]_________________[/td] [td]|[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]|[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

It's possible to combine different variants how you like it.
If you have other suggestions you can post it here and I'll create a little collection of useful table formatting styles.


Some additional information:


If you want to include pictures in your table, you need to leave the first table row blank if you don't use ___ or similar because if you don't add it or don't leave the first table row blank, your image won't be sized correctly. Same applies also for text of course. More information here and here.


And if you want to read more about tables (basics explained in detail) , you can have a look here: Tutorial - How to create Table in the BitcoinTalk Forum.


Translations:

Language	translated by	Title
___________________________	_____________________	_______________________________________________________________________
Română (Romanian)	GazetaBitcoin	Câteva sugestii, în caz că doriți să folosiți tabele pe forumul BitcoinTalk
Nigeria (Naija)	Egii Nna	Another suggestion if you wan use table for bitcointalk

Reserving new translations is currently not available.

[1713462184]

1713462184

[1713462184]

1713462184

[1miau]

reserved

[Effendyaz]

I got the idea, table is able to display content to wide direction, so it will utilize wide side rather than bottom side which is less effective and less efficient.

[bitmover]

You were very patient making this guide.

I tried to use table in some of my posts, and I was able to use in a few of them.
But it takes too long to get it perfectly done, because any small problem will break the table completely.

Table creating should be much easier, i hope they make it better in the new forum software. I havent tried the beta so far

[1miau]

I tried to use table in some of my posts, and I was able to use in a few of them.
But it takes too long to get it perfectly done, because any small problem will break the table completely.

Well said, table formatting is not easy at all.

I tried a version where I used spaces instead of _ but it didn't work because if I use more than 2 words in a column, the table is splitting it in a new row, something like that:

abcdefghijk	abcdefghijk
abcdef ghijklmnop	abcdef ghijklmnop

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td][b]abcdefghijk[/b][/td]
[td][b]abcdefghijk[/b][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]                          [/td]
[td]                          [/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]abcdef ghijklmnop[/td]
[td]abcdef ghijklmnop[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

Doesn't work and I needed quite a time to fix it using a bunch of ____
Sometimes it helps to quote existing tables and have a look how other people are formatting them.  

[nakamura12]

If you have enough spaces then the table won't be look like what you wanted or the column doesn't have space to separate the each colum in your table exactly like the table you have used as an example which in my opinion it doesn't look neatly created. We don't have choice though but to use more spaces to separate the columns so that the columns won't almost be in the same place as the other one.

[1miau]

If you have enough spaces then the table won't be look like what you wanted or the column doesn't have space to separate the each colum in your table exactly like the table you have used as an example which in my opinion it doesn't look neatly created. We don't have choice though but to use more spaces to separate the columns so that the columns won't almost be in the same place as the other one.

That wouldn't make a difference to use more spaces:

abcdefghijk	abcdefghijk
abcdef ghijklmnop	abcdef ghijklmnop

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td][b]abcdefghijk[/b][/td]
[td][b]abcdefghijk[/b][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]                                                              [/td]
[td]                                                              [/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]abcdef ghijklmnop[/td]
[td]abcdef ghijklmnop[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

BBCode is still splitting the text in a new row because spaces result in a new line, whenever they are used. I don't know if there's a way to prevent it.

[tranthidung]

I tried your given formats, and personally I like the first table template, rather than the second one with

Code:

[td]|[/td]

The second one looks a bit messy when I adding contents and editing. Maybe it is my personal favorite or because I am not familiar with that format.

[1miau]

I tried your given formats, and personally I like the first table template, rather than the second one with

Same here, the second one has also the disadvantage that several words per line will be splitted into two lines (if more than 2 words are used in the content and the line is longer than the headline):

xxxxx xxxxxxxx	|	xxx xxxxxxxx	|	xxxxxxxx xxxx	|
xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx	|	xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx	|	xxxxx   xxxxxxxxxxx	|

This layout is used here, for example: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615953.0

So, it's still possible that the layout is looking good, but it's important which content should be posted there. After all, I prefer the first solution, too  

[1miau]

bump

[NotATether]

I'm not sure about BBCode but in Markdown you can make tables like:

Code:

Column A|Column B
---|---
Row A|Row A
Row B|Row B

And that fills in the table with a dark grey background for the headers and a light grey background for everything else. You could add more dashes to it but that is optional. I'm not a big fan of typing a bunch of underscores either, so I just play it safe and use the tr td notation here.

[hd49728]

For a long time ago, I read a post of one user whom guided to split table into two columns, one for image (on the left, for example), and another one for notes of that image (on the right). Unfortunately, I forgot to save that format. I think that one is cool because it saves more space in post and in page of topic. Sometimes, we don't need a long paraphrase to describe one image, so that format makes sense.

If you can, please help me to do that, 1miau.

[1miau]

I'm not sure about BBCode but in Markdown you can make tables like:

Code:

Column A|Column B
---|---
Row A|Row A
Row B|Row B

And that fills in the table with a dark grey background for the headers and a light grey background for everything else. You could add more dashes to it but that is optional. I'm not a big fan of typing a bunch of underscores either, so I just play it safe and use the tr td notation here.

I don't know if it's possible for BBCode. You can do such kind of formatting and try to change the numbers ( I don't know what they mean  )

Code:

[glow=#c6c6c6,2,300]such kind of formatting[/glow]

but it isn't really a satisfactory solution.  

Maybe you can ask roslinpl, he did some great tutorials about BBCode: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727100.0

Edit: there seems to be a solution (https://help.forumotion.com/t71690-background-for-bbcode-tables) but I tried and it didn't work. Maybe some BBCode designers can help out.  

For a long time ago, I read a post of one user whom guided to split table into two columns, one for image (on the left, for example), and another one for notes of that image (on the right). Unfortunately, I forgot to save that format. I think that one is cool because it saves more space in post and in page of topic. Sometimes, we don't need a long paraphrase to describe one image, so that format makes sense.

If you can, please help me to do that, 1miau.

I hope I understand you correctly, like that:

Picture	Words
________________________________________	________________________________________
	thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td]Picture[/td]
[td]Words[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]________________________________________[/td]
[td]______________________________[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][img height=350]https://i.imgur.com/Fs9qcge.png[/img][/td][td]thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm[/td]
[/tr]

[/table]

?  
Don't know if that's what you need.  

I'm also searching sometimes, maybe you still know the topic and some key words posted in that topic to use the search button.  

[masulum]

I made a template to make a point and list for any post, anyone can edit with some table decoration by OP such as using |, *, + or ____,

Preview.

Your Point	___	List of point content
__________________	___	__________________
Poit A This is short summary	___	Lorem ipsum Lorem ipsum dolor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Point B This is short summary	___	Lorem ipsum Lorem ipsum dolor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Point C This is short summary	___	Lorem ipsum Lorem ipsum dolor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Poin D This is short summary	___	Lorem ipsum Lorem ipsum dolor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Here the code:

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td][b]Your Point[/b][/td]
[td][color=transparent]___[/color][/td]
[td][b]List of point content[/b][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][b]__________________[/b][/td]
[td][color=transparent]___[/color][/td]
[td][b]__________________[/b][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][b]Poit A[/b]
This is short summary [/td]
        [td][color=transparent]___[/color][/td]
[td][list][li]Lorem ipsum[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet[/li]
[/list][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][b]Point B[/b]
This is short summary [/td]
[td][color=transparent]___[/color][/td]
[td][list][li]Lorem ipsum[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet[/li]
[/list][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][b]Point C[/b]
This is short summary [/td]
[td][color=transparent]___[/color][/td]
[td][list][li]Lorem ipsum[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet[/li]
[/list][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][b]Poin D[/b]
This is short summary [/td]
[td][color=transparent]___[/color][/td]
[td][list][li]Lorem ipsum[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor[/li]
[li]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet[/li]
[/list][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[Bttzed03]

For a long time ago, I read a post of one user whom guided to split table into two columns, one for image (on the left, for example), and another one for notes of that image (on the right). Unfortunately, I forgot to save that format.

I'm also searching sometimes, maybe you still know the topic and some key words posted in that topic to use the search button. 

I'm not sure but it could be this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727100.msg17876458#msg17876458

[hd49728]

I hope I understand you correctly, like that:

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td]Picture[/td]
[td]Words[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]________________________________________[/td]
[td]______________________________[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td][img height=350]https://i.imgur.com/Fs9qcge.png[/img][/td][td]thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm
thermos is keeping your tea safe and warm[/td]
[/tr]

[/table]

Thank you for the given format, that is what I would like to use if I want to add small notes beside images. This time, I saved your format and link to that post into my notebook, for later reference and for use.

I'm not sure but it could be this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727100.msg17876458#msg17876458

It is not the post I mentioned but the given format results in same display. Thank you.

[Stalker22]

I like playing with Unicode when I have time to spare.
Here's a template that might be useful to someone:

╔	══════════	╦	══════════	╦	══════════	╦	══════════	╗
║	col 1	║	col 2	║	col 3	║	col 4	║
╠	══════════	╬	══════════	╬	══════════	╬	══════════	╣
║	xxx	║	xxx	║	xxx	║	xxx	║
╚	══════════	╩	══════════	╩	══════════	╩	══════════	╝

Code:

[table]
[tr]
[td]╔[/td] [td]══════════[/td] [td]╦[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╦[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╦[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╗[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]║[/td] [td][b]col 1[/b][/td] [td]║[/td]
[td][b]col 2[/b][/td] [td]║[/td]
[td][b]col 3[/b][/td] [td]║[/td]
[td][b]col 4[/b][/td] [td]║[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]╠[/td] [td]══════════[/td] [td]╬[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╬[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╬[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╣[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]║[/td] [td]xxx[/td] [td]║[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]║[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]║[/td]
[td]xxx[/td] [td]║[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]╚[/td] [td]══════════[/td] [td]╩[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╩[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╩[/td]
[td]══════════[/td] [td]╝[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

[Artemis3]

Funny there is no mention of the display rendering bug in the first column of a table. I think this is a problem with either SMF, Bitcointalk, or the particular version of SMF used in bitcointalk (or some modding done by the admin).

Thing is the first column will be too thin. And, this doesn't show in the preview, only when you post.

Using ___ is a clever way to force the width. Another is to simply bypass the first column entirely by having an empty one.

many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words

many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words

many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words

vs

many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words

many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words

many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words many words

[noorman0]

Funny there is no mention of the display rendering bug in the first column of a table. I think this is a problem with either SMF, Bitcointalk, or the particular version of SMF used in bitcointalk (or some modding done by the admin).

Thing is the first column will be too thin. And, this doesn't show in the preview, only when you post.

Using ___ is a clever way to force the width. Another is to simply bypass the first column entirely by having an empty one.
~snip

Some people don't want the use of underscore ("_") char because it's not needed, of course, it can be made transparent by color code. Another way that can be applied to make the code more efficient is to use transparent char ("⠀"= U+2800) instead of space char in the longest text/sentence in the first column.
This char will be also very helpful for signature designers, where they must use the minimum number of chars possible.

[Butwhytho]

1	2	3	4	5	6
_________________	_________________	_________________	_________________	_________________	_________________
Is	it	working	properly	?	I think so.

Thank you for sharing the code. I'm sure it'll improve the quality of my posts.