Draw: Custom Table Conundrums

[Beowulf2525]

Hello,

So I've been involved with a project requiring extensive use of Table work and I've encountered quite the difficulty in some areas. The largest is when working with borders on the Tables. I've included a visual step-by-step of the problem.

Here is one of the Tables I'm creating. It is a standard 11x6 Table.

For my table to function, I merge various sections together.

I change all the borders to a 2.50 point size with interior at 0.50 point. Lo and Behold, something's not right. Easy fix, right?

Wrong.

Every time I attempt to enlarge that one border area, it won't work. It refuses. And this is a problem I've encountered consistently when working with Tables in OpenOffice. It's so bizarre that everything works fun except when merging/splitting tables and changing the border size. This problem has constantly forced me to consider new methods of creating the table while trying to keep it comprehensible. Several times I've had to finish a project by carefully inserting a straight line in and increasing its' size little by little so to try and make everything appear uniform. But that shouldn't be necessary.

These little things have frustrated me and caused me to spend unnecessary hours reworking my documents. Any insight into what I can do to fix the problem (if it's my end) would be appreciated.

Thanks.

PS: What's with the inability to right click a Table in Draw and select "Optimal Width" like there is in Writer?

[Zizi64]

Why you do not use the Calc application (or the Writer) for such tables?

Can you upload your example .odg file here?

[acknak]

The table feature in OO Draw is relatively new and is not as robust or featureful as tables in OO Writer, or cell borders in OO Calc.

I find the Draw tables to be so awkward and buggy that I avoid them. If I need anything more than a simple table, I use OO Writer and then paste the Writer table into the drawing.

Borders in OO tables are often a problem, I think because OO uses a combination of cel, row and column formats. If you set the borders for a row (for example), then try to change the border for one specific cell in that row, OO has to re-organize the formatting. Usually, it's fine but sometimes it seems to get into a corner that it can't get out of. You may get better results by applying the borders in a different order.

If you want specific help with your table, attach a sample drawing here.

Edit: PS:

Ok, I can reproduce the problem. It seems to come from the merged cells. If I split the merged cell where the problem occurs, the thick outer border re-appears. I can get the appearance you want by leaving that cell split and just remove the border instead of merging the cells.