Solving Problems With Complex Table Formatting

I recently had to design a calendar in InDesign using complex table formatting with very specific requirements for row and column strokes:

• Thick lines separating each month, spanning across the columns
• Names of the months in white, with a colored background
• Individual days with row dividers, but not column dividers
• Row dividers could not span across the columns
• Weekends formatted like the weekdays, but with blue row dividers
• Weeks starting with Monday

Initially, I tried to use InDesign’s row and column strokes to accomplish this, but that proved to be impossible. After mentally chewing on this issue for a week, I decided to almost completely ditch the idea of using row and stroke formatting for this. This table is so complex and unusual that I thought I would share how I created it.

Read the entire article at InDesign Secrets: Solving Problems With Complex Table Formatting

An Easier Way to Apply Gradients to Table Cells

For years now, it has been extremely difficult to apply gradients to individual table cells. David Blatner wrote an article nearly seven years ago dealing with the subject, and since then it has never gotten any easier to apply gradients to table cells... until recently.

Previously, gradients would by default stretch across the entire width of the table, by my new technique uses Paragraph Shading and Paragraph Styles to easily contain the gradients to a single cell. Read the entire article at InDesign Secrets.