Until now, making tables on the Mac has been largely a job for spreadsheet applications. TableTools is the first dedicated table editor for the Macintosh that's also compatible with page-layout programs such as PageMaker, Ready,Set,Go!, and QuarkXPress.
WHAT IT IS TableTools sets up tables on a work space that is similar to a page-layout program's. When you launch the program, a 4-x-4-cell table is automatically created. A cell can be formatted as Text, Graphic, or None, and you can have as many as 127 x 127 cells, depending on your Mac’s configuration. (On an SE with 1 megabyte, you can have about 140 cells; with 2 megabytes, about 1,200.) You can build a table from within TableTools or import text or SYLK files. Importing SYLK files is slow, however (see Performance table). When you import an Excel spreadsheet containing formulas, the formulas are embedded in the TableTools cells and can't be modified. You can, however, apply any of 25 number formats to the values of these cells, which enhances their on-screen and printed appearance.
TableTools is modal in that it operates from linked compartments. You can move between modes by using the Mode palette. menu item, or keyboard equivalent. During intensive editing, this switching can get annoying, especial ly since TableTools has three modes: Table, in which you edit tables: Text, in which you edit the text in the cells: and a From Within shuttle — a capability like hot links that lets you move between Excel and graphics programs (including MacDraw, Illustrator, and MacPaint).
TableTools’ comprehensive editing capabilities are presented on three levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. (The program defaults to the Beginner level at startup.) TableTools can be edited and formatted like most spreadsheets, plus it features intercell diagonal lines and fills and the ability to group cells into regions where headers and other oversized elements can be placed. Cells can be set to automatically grow as you enter text.
The Intermediate level adds increased control over text formatting on a ruler with icons for tabs, indents, alignment, leading, paragraph spacing, font, size, and style. Pasteboard rulers and alignment guides allow the precise placement of elements within a table. On the Advanced level, you can set up hierarchical table and text style sheets for controlling regions and text formats. Style books can be copied from one document to another, and tables can be saved as a PICT or Color PICT document, as a PageMaker equivalent document, or in TableTools format.
HOW IT WORKS TableTools has power, but editing can be cumbersome. The Undo function is inactive for most operations. The Border Line and Diagonal tools are tricky to use, and some elements of TableTools’ nonstandard interface are annoying. A Hide/Show dialog box for Edit Settings, for example, lets you pull up a modified Key Caps keyboard for entering dingbats, but the keyboard won't go to the rear when you select another window. Furthermore, modifying stylesheets in the Style Manager and applying them to your table requires too many steps.
Performance on the Plus or SE is also hampered by the default Text format for cell creation (you really need a Mac II with 2 megabytes for serious editing). In this format, a 7-x-40-cell table requires 276K. The same table shrank to 58K when I formatted it as None, which also reduced the RAM requirements (see Performance table).
Mansfield gets good marks for a methodical manual with good tutorials. A Athough TableTools is a decent first step, it falls short of being the definitive table editor for desktop publishers. Things that would make table editing more palatable — such as built-in charting, tabbing through cells, automatic scrolling on selection, intelligent footnoting, the ability to flip rows and columns, the ability to sort on column or row headers or to edit facing table pages, and a Preferences file for saving user level and edit settings — are missing.
Although TableTools has superior table-manipulation features, it lacks some of the power users need for financial and scientific purposes. If you have an in-house DTP operation creating complex tables, you might consider TableTools. But for simple tables, Word 4.0 is your best bet right now — and, for the same price. Word comes with a word processor to boot.
Miley, Michael. (September 1989). TableTools. MacUser. (pg. 63).
Mansfield Systems
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
4 / 
2020-09-14 / 
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TableTools.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Mini vMac
