Add table layouts

Author: agentlecisco

_learn/10-evaluting-ssg-themes.md

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+---
+title: "Evaluating table layouts and formatting"
+image:
+  path: /images/so-simple-sample-image-4.jpg
+  thumbnail: /images/site-logo.png
+---
+
+One of the most helpful tools when creating tables for Markdown or RST is the Tables Generator at https://www.tablesgenerator.com/markdown_tables. You can draw tables or paste table data and then render the ASCII-based output for pasting into your document source file.
+
+For example, here is an empty five-column table in Markdown, ready for you to insert cell data and spaces.
+
+```
+|  |  |  |  |  |
+|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
+|  |  |  |  |  |
+|  |  |  |  |  |
+|  |  |  |  |  |
+```
+
+When using Markdown for tables, you do not have access to block-level formatting. If you need a second paragraph, you can use `<br>` inside of a Markdown table. For more complex tables, many people use HTML inside of Markdown files.
+
+For RST, there are several options for table markup that is super simple while still allowing for nice table output.
+
+Simple tables can be made with dashes and plus signs and pipe symbols. Use spaces to indicate the size of cells. However these can be difficult to hand-type and maintain with changes over time. So, look for other table syntax ideas to make it easier to maintain the tables.
+
+The [RST documentation](https://thomas-cokelaer.info/tutorials/sphinx/rest_syntax.html#tables) has several table syntax examples. Over time I have found that the most useful way to maintain table data in columns and rows is the `csv-table` directive. Indicate header rows and labels in the cells, along with the widths of each column. Then enter the data in a CSV-like stye. Here's an example:
+
+```
+.. csv-table:: a title
+   :header: "name", "firstname", "age"
+   :widths: 20, 20, 10
+
+   "Smith", "John", 40
+   "Smith", "John, Junior", 20
+```
+
+If you also output PDF using LaTeX with Sphinx, be aware that there's a column specification for tabular data. Then you can use centimeters for width like so:
+
+```
+.. tabularcolumns:: |l|c|p{5cm}|
++--------------+---+-----------+
+|  simple text | 2 | 3         |
++--------------+---+-----------+
+```
+
+Your editor may also have helpful tools for managing tables, such as the [Markdown Table Editor in Atom](https://atom.io/packages/markdown-table-editor), which can resize all rows and columns while you type. Plus, it enables keybindings that you can use to navigate between cells and rows.