InDesign for QuarkXPress Users [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Creating Alternating Patterns

It's often helpful to apply an alternating pattern of strokes or fills to the cells of a table to make it more readable or to improve its appearance. Unlike QuarkXPress, InDesign lets you create these alternating patterns automatically. That means that as you subsequently edit the table, adding or deleting rows and columns, the pattern remains true. As we noted earlier, alternating patterns override local table cell strokes and fills unless you turn on Preserve Local Formatting.

Adding Alternate Strokes

To create alternating strokes in your table, click anywhere in the table and choose Table Options from the Table menu. Then, in the Alternating Row Strokes panel (or the Alternating Column Strokes, depending on what you're trying to do), choose an alternating pattern: every other row, every second or third row, or whatever. You may wish to skip a certain number rows at the top or bottom of the tablefor example, the header rows at the top. Specify that in the Skip First and Skip Last fields.

Adding Alternate Fills

You can also specify alternating fills across rows or columns by choosing the Alternating Fills panel in the Table Options dialog box. Similar to the alternating stroke choices above, you can choose the frequency and fill colors of your pattern for either rows or columns (see Figure 75-7).