zim-wiki team mailing list archive

[Rico <ubuntu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
I am the new guy who only joined the list to ask for even more cool
features ;-)

I just found out about the table plugin and started using it.
It's great what we can achieve with it, but (as always) good things can
be improved ;-)
I'd just like to describe my ideas and get some feedback before writing
bug tracker tickets.

The most obvious idea for me is that I would like to be able to generate
a table with no header.
I don't see any technical reason against this - does anybody else?
You might ask "who wants a table without a header?"
The answer is simply "I do!". I don't need (and don't want) a table
header when listing ingredients for my recipies.
I am currently using empty header cells, which look fine in HTML output,
but getting rid of the header completely would be great.
Zim already recognizes this as a table:
| abc | def |
| foo | bar |

Unfortunately it is automatically converted into that:
| abc | def |
|-----|-----|
| foo | bar |


The second idea is about efficient editing of table contents.
Currently editing a table means constantly switching between mouse and
keyboard, which is very inefficient.
When editing a table cell, it would be great if the Tab key would bring
the cursor into the next cell (the next one on the right or the first
one in the next row if the cursor is in the last column).
When the cursor is placed in the last column of the last row, hitting
Tab could also add a new row automatically.
Hitting Shift-Tab should jump in the opposite direction (probably
without generating new lines at the top of the table).
Being able to navigate between cells using the cursor keys would also be
great (but not as important as the Tab functionality from my point of view).
This is how table editing works in most applications I know (eg.
LibreOffice Writer).
>From the user's point of view I don't see any reason why Zim should
behave differently (and less convenient), but I fear that there might be
reasons in the plugin API that keeps us from getting this easily.


What do you think about those ideas/wishes?
Does this make sense? (I hope so.)
Would it mean a lot of work? (I fear so.)

Cheers!
Rico