Reading tables

Read wide tables, resize columns, edit cells and add rows or columns with keyboard shortcuts.

Short tables take only the width their content needs. With automatic widths, columns size to their content rather than taking equal shares. Dates and short labels stay on one line. Prose wraps within its cell; long links and code can wrap too. With manual widths, prose wraps to the chosen width and short labels may wrap between words. Columns cannot shrink below their readable minimum.

Reaching every column

Wide tables use the free space on both sides of the text column, keeping a margin at the window edges. Short tables keep their content-sized width. Tables inside a list or quote stay within that list or quote.

A table that still needs more room scrolls sideways inside its own block. The rest of the page stays in place. Scroll horizontally with your trackpad or the table's scrollbar. Your system may hide scrollbars until you start scrolling.

Press Tab to focus a table that needs horizontal scrolling. A focus outline shows which table has focus. Use the Left and Right arrow keys to scroll, then Tab to move on. A table that fits has no extra keyboard stop. Resizing the window or changing text size updates which tables need scrolling.

The plain arrow keys scroll when the table itself has focus. Inside an editable cell, they still move the text cursor. Modified arrow keys keep their usual meaning.

Resizing columns

Drag a column's right edge to make it wider or narrower. The other columns keep their widths, and a wide table still scrolls inside its block. Resizing works even when editing is off; it changes only the view, leaves the Markdown file untouched and does not add an unsaved dot.

With editing on and the cursor in a cell, press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to narrow that column or Ctrl+Shift+F10 to widen it. Use Control, not Command, on Mac; hold Fn if your keyboard needs it for function keys. Keyboard resizing needs editing on. When editing is off, drag the edge instead.

Escape cancels the current drag. It does not undo earlier keyboard width changes. Resizing adds no keyboard stops.

Column widths last while the file stays open on screen and are never saved in the Markdown file. Switching tabs keeps them. They reset whenever the page reloads: on reopen, or when a save or an agent's change reloads the file, for example files over 100,000 characters.

Adding columns keeps existing widths with their content; a new column starts automatic. New rows use their columns' widths.

Editing a cell

When editing is allowed, click a visible cell and type. You can scroll to a column before editing it. Undo and saving work as they do elsewhere in the page; changing the view does not change your Markdown.

Files or parts that are read-only stay read-only; scrolling does not enable editing. See When editing is off and Editing and saving a file.

Adding a row or column

Put the cursor in an editable table cell, then use:

The cursor moves into the new cell so you can type. Save with Cmd+S or Ctrl+S. The table keeps its existing cells, spacing and line endings; new columns start without alignment. Cmd+Enter or Ctrl+Enter still moves out of the table.

Tables with only a header and no body rows cannot add rows or columns yet. Deleting or moving rows or columns, merging cells, and changing alignment also remain unavailable, so the table's shape buttons stay hidden. A change of that kind made another way is refused at save; your edits stay until you undo it.

Undoing an addition before saving restores the original table. After saving, undoing that addition would delete a saved row or column, so saving is refused. Redo restores it and lets you save again.

A clean reload resets a table's horizontal scroll position. You can scroll to its other columns again.