Content Comparison

Tables in the Single Digital Presence (SDP) content management system can be built using either the table option in the Basic text component toolbar or the Data table component.

Adjusting column width, cell alignment and merging cells requires some HTML coding ability. This functionality is currently under maintenance, sorry.

Data table component

Read our guide on using the data table component.

Basic text component – table option

Read our guide on using the basic text component – table option.

Advanced settings

Alignment

...

By default, tables will expand to take up the full text width space on your screen. On desktops, this is 818px wide.

Alignment of text in tables

Table text is left-aligned by default in SDP/Ripple.

Most tables should be left-aligned because we read left-to-right. However, tables with financial figures should have any columns with

...

dollar figures set to right-aligned.

...

To change the alignment,

...

The code options you can use are:

• align="left"

• align="right"

• align="center" (note the US spelling)

• align="justify"

Remember to always add a space between “th” or “td” and the alignment code snippet, so it looks like this: <th align="right">

How to add the code

In the component with your table, click the Source button. Look for code like this:

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Year</th>
<th>Total amount ($)</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>2019</td>
<td>23,100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2020</td>
<td>19,870</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2021</td>
<td>21,100</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The heading cells are coded <th>.

The rest of the cells are coded <td>.

To set right-alignment for the second column (as displayed in the example), you need to add the code snippet into the <th> and all the corresponding <td> tags.

Here's an example, using the code above with the alignment snipped added:

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Year</th>
<th align="right">Total amount ($)</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>2019</td>
<td align="right">23,100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2020</td>
<td align="right">19,870</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2021</td>
<td align="right">21,100</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Column width

Expand

Info This functionality is currently not working. Please submit a ticket if you require this. We’re working on it! You can set a column width in just the heading row and that setting will then apply to the whole column. (This is different to alignment, which you have to set up in every cell.) One reason you might want to do this when you have a page with several similar tables and, due to varying lengths of content, they are displaying with varying column widths. In this case, setting the width of the columns should make the page content look better. How to manually set column width Width is controlled by our CSS (a style sheet that controls how the web pages look). In the CSS for vic.gov.au we have pre-set 12 fixed widths that correspond to percentages of the text area on screen (with different widths for different devices: desktop, tablet or mobile). You want to add this code <th class=:"rpl-table--col-X">Column name</th> to the column you're adjusting, with the X being the relevant number from the options below. Here are the 12 snippets of code and the percentage they will apply: Image Removed Examples of how the different column widths display Often you just want to set the first column and let the width of the other columns automatically display according to the contents. This table has the first column set to display at 17% of the table's width. Image Removed This table has the first column set to display at 33% of the table's width. Image Removed This table has the first column set to display at 50% of the table's width. The fifth column has some longer text and this is affecting how columns 2, 3, 4 and 5 display in relation to each other. Image Removed This table has the first column set to display at 75% of the table's width. That doesn't leave much space to display the content in the other columns. Image Removed

Merging cells

...

select the cells you want to change. They will turn blue.

Then use the alignment icon on the toolbar to choose right aligned.

...

Setting column width in tables

This functionality was updated in Release 1.51.0 in December 2024.

When you build a table, the column width auto-adjusts based on the widest content in a column. They also appear centred on the screen.

If you have several tables on a page with similar information, you may want to adjust column width so they display well.

Below is an example of a page in the CMS with similar tables but varying column widths based on the content.

...

Because the tables are centred on screen, first you need to drag the right border of the table to fill the screen. The table will display with a yellow border while you’re doing this.

Below is an example of how the page will look when all tables are dragged to full width.

...

Now that the tables are dragged to full width, you can work on adjusting individual columns for consistency.

Drag the column borders of all your columns to your preferred width.

Setting column width via the source code

You have to do this by eye. If you want to get really specific, you can set the widths in the Source code.

In the example below, I had dragged the column widths so they visually matched and now I’ve gone into the source code to be more exact. I can see my first 2 columns are similar width at 27.45% and 26.97% respectively.

You just need to edit the number after “data-resize-width=”. This will auto adjust the “style=” part as well.

...

If you do edit these numbers make sure all the columns add up to 100%!

Merging cells in tables

Occasionally you may want to merge some cells in a table heading row, which you can do via the source code.

Use the colspan code

If you're merging cells in a column (such as a heading), you insert the code and remove extra cells that relate to the spanning.

For example: picture a table that has 5 columns, and its first row is set up as the headings. We want merge the heading cells in columns 1, 2 and 3, so we’ll delete the heading code snippet for columns 2 and 3. The rest of the table has 5 cells per row.

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="3">Head 1,2,3</th>
<th>Head 4</th>
<th>Head 5</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
<td>blah blah</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Here's what the above code looks like:

...

Use the rowspan code

If you've set up a table and chosen the first column as the heading row, you'll notice the code looks different to the example above. There are no <thead> tags, and instead the first cell in each row has <th scope="row"> which indicates it's a heading.

Here's an example:

<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Head 1</th>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Head 2</th>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Head 3</th>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Head 4</th>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

This is what the above code looks like:

...

To merge cells in rows, you insert the code and remove the extra cells that relate to the spanning.

In this example, the table has 3 columns. We want to merge the heading cells in column 1, rows 1 and 2. The cell with <th> tags in the second row therefore needs to be deleted.

<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th scope="row" rowspan="2">Head 1 & 2</th>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Head 3</th>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Here's what the above code looks like:

...