TableDraw   Table Generator

by Andrew Benson


TableDraw will take a CSV data file, produced by most spreadsheets and
databases, and produce a Draw file containing the data in the form of a
table. This can then be modified in Draw or dropped straight into a DTP
document. This saves a lot of time and effort when drawing out a grid for
the table, adjusting the sizes and adding the text etc.

Double-clicking on the TableDraw icon opens up a Filer window containing
the TableDraw application and two example Draw files.

To run TableDraw, simply double-click on its icon in the Filer window.

Clicking Menu on the TableDraw icon on the icon bar will open the
TableDraw menu.

Save allows the Draw file to be saved either to disc or directly into your
CAD program.

Options leads to a submenu allowing various aspects of the table to be
altered. These are:

Rounding - The program will round any numeric values in the CSV file to
any number of decimal places. This is useful in itself, but is also
important because CSV files often contain values with rounding errors (i.e.
4.4999999999 instead of 4.5). Type the number of decimal places you require
into the writable icon.

Uniform grid - If this option is ticked then all boxes of the grid will be
the same size, giving a uniform appearance. If it is unticked, each row and
column will be sized so that it is just big enough to contain the text in
it.

Save options - Selecting this entry will save the current options to disc
so that they will be in effect as soon as TableDraw is loaded.

The main menu contains an entry titled Font. This leads to a submenu
displaying a list of all the outline fonts currently installed. Select the
font you wish to use in the table here.

Using TableDraw
Set up the various options in TableDraw and select the font you wish to
use. Then prepare a CSV data file, either with a spreadsheet or database, or
directly in Edit or another text editor.

Each line of the file gives the data for one row of the table. The data for
each column should be separated with a comma. Text should be enclosed in
quotes to distinguish it from numeric values. The file should then be saved
and given a filetype of &DFE. An example file might look like this:

"","Time for" 
"Experiment","10 swings","Period" 
"1",34,3.4 
"2",98,9.8
"3",45,4.5 
"4",12,1.2

The program can deal with tables up to twenty columns wide and twenty rows
deep.

Once the CSV file is created simply drag it onto the TableDraw icon. The
hourglass will appear and there will be a short pause whilst the file is
processed. You can then save the table from the Save option in the menu.
Floppy disc only users should copy !Scrap from this disc to a RAM disc
(and double-click on this copy of !Scrap) before attempting to run this
application from the magazine disc.


 Copyright RISC User 1993
