HMTL tables
January 27, 2013 2:14 PM Subscribe
I'd like to make attractive html tables (and various kinds of graphs, charts, etc) for a wordpress blog, but I don't think like a programmer. Is there a program where I can manipulate the design elements like pictures instead of code? And then plug the information into the table cells and grab the code when it all looks like what I want?
Have you checked out the Google Charts tool? There are some tools that can help you if you're averse to working with javascript/html yourself and you can generate charts directly from a google doc, too.
posted by maniactown at 2:40 PM on January 27, 2013
posted by maniactown at 2:40 PM on January 27, 2013
As you probably know, you can build tables directly in HTML; the best way to make them look nice is through CSS. Graphs you can't do directly in HTML (well, with the Canvas element, yeah, sort of, but that's pretty sophisticated stuff).
Anyhow, there are a number of HTML table-style generator out there (search for "html table css generator"). Here's one. This one will apply whatever styling you generate to a table wrapped inside a <div class="datagrid">, which isn't a bad approach. The smart thing to do (IMO) would be to copy the CSS it gives you into your blog's stylesheet, and then wrap all tables in that tag. You could have a few different styles for tables as long as they all had different selectors, but having one good-looking table and sticking with a house style would make more sense, IMO.
posted by adamrice at 5:09 PM on January 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
Anyhow, there are a number of HTML table-style generator out there (search for "html table css generator"). Here's one. This one will apply whatever styling you generate to a table wrapped inside a <div class="datagrid">, which isn't a bad approach. The smart thing to do (IMO) would be to copy the CSS it gives you into your blog's stylesheet, and then wrap all tables in that tag. You could have a few different styles for tables as long as they all had different selectors, but having one good-looking table and sticking with a house style would make more sense, IMO.
posted by adamrice at 5:09 PM on January 27, 2013 [3 favorites]
The trouble with Jade_bug's suggestion is that the data in an image is not readable by screen readers and search engines (and any future updates would require changing the source data, recreating the image, re-uploading, etc. etc.)
Along with the resources suggested above, you could try this accessible table builder (here's a good intro into the hows and whys of accessible tables).
posted by humph at 1:52 AM on January 28, 2013
Along with the resources suggested above, you could try this accessible table builder (here's a good intro into the hows and whys of accessible tables).
posted by humph at 1:52 AM on January 28, 2013
Assuming that you are running under Windows, one of the dead-simple options is Blocknote.
posted by megatherium at 4:38 AM on January 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by megatherium at 4:38 AM on January 28, 2013 [1 favorite]
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You might also check out Google docs. I'm not sure if you can make charts or graphs but I do know that they'll give you a piece of code to put your document on your webpage, so if they do charts that might work.
posted by Jade_bug at 2:40 PM on January 27, 2013