Creating Table Styles

Sometimes you don't need the all powerful schedule style; a table style will work instead. I have found that the tables in ABS 2007 are very slick. This post contains some of what I have found in creating table styles. Some of this is very specific and you will probably want to adjust it for your needs. Enjoy!


Creating a Table Style:
(To create a table style to be used to drop in a table that will then be modified.)
Go to Format
Choose Table Style
A pop-up will show up
You can either "set current" create a "new" or "modify" a style per the buttons on the right.
Highlight the table on the left that you want to work on.
Then select one of the 3 buttons on the right.
If you want to create a new table style then click on the "new" button.
A new pop-up will show up.
It asks you to name your new style
It also asks what style do you want to base it off of, if you don’t know just use the "standard" one.
Click "continue"
A new pop-up will show up with 3 tabs across the top.
These tabs controls the info output of the table.
On any of the tabs you can set up the text style:
If what you want is not available click on the "…" and create the text style
Click on "new" and name the style w/ the font name & a descriptor, click OK (ex: Arial-Title)
Next click on the font name and select the desired font.
For titles use: your title font style
For headers & regular text: use your text font style
Click "apply" once you have created all the text styles that you need.
You will be back to the "new table style" pop-up.
Now you can click the down arrow by the text style and pick the applicable one.
For your text you will may want to set the "text color" to the desired color on all tabs.
Also set the "alignment" to "middle center" for all cells in all tabs for now. (or align as desired)
You can change the outlines of the cells by the border properties at the bottom.
For the outline of the border of everything set the "grid color" to a heavy penweight color.
For the underlining of the Headers set the "grid color" to a medium penweight color.
(When the table is inserted you may want to place it a specific layer in order for the
remaining grid lines to show up the desired weight)
For now leave the cell margins set as they are: horizontal 1/16", vertical 1/16".
Once you have set up all 3 tabs click on OK.
It will take you back to the original pop-up.
You can set your new table style as current, then hit close.
If you ever need to modify this table style come back into this pop-up, select your table style and click on "modify".
Be sure to click on "OK" once you have modified everything.
Then click on "close" once you are finished.
Keep in mind any changes you make to the table style will immediately update in the drawing that you are working in. (typically)
If you need to delete a table style come back into this main pop-up, highlight the style you want to get rid of, click on "delete", and then click on "close".