TheRealAlpha2 Wrote:

Tony Wrote: Thank you for the reply.  That's the text in the table.  I tried, just in case, and even aligning very cell left does nothing to the table.  Aligning the table left still leaves the tables in the middle.  Well, when I align left, it moves the text to the right of the table, which I don't want, so I put the chapter text below again.  I just want the table by itself, aligned to the left of the screen, and not in the middle, and the chapter text above and below it.  I do notice after I save the chapter and go back to edit the left align is gone from the tables, but is there after I preview and the tables are always in the center when I preview.

To see what I'm talking about here is a link to a chapter with a table - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65726/blood-qi-a-vampire-xianxia-litrpg/chapter/1142624/9-legendary

Hmm... I've not finished my own novel yet, so I hadn't ever actually attempted to use it (Didn't want to jump the gun and start until I had a suitable number of chapters) But just now I tried this:

Table> Made it 1x1> Typed some text inside> Center justified> Table Properties> General tab> Width: 75%> Align: Left

This made it appear to stick the left side of the screen. I even went back and tested the center, left and right options to make sure, but it seemed to work in the editor at least.  I don't have any chapters on my account yet though, so I can't test to see if it retains it when posted.

I really appreciate the help.  Did it stick after you hit preview?  My tables were imported from Word, but I tried all the steps besides making a new table from scratch, and it always goes back to the center.

Tony Wrote: I really appreciate the help.  Did it stick after you hit preview?  My tables were imported from Word, but I tried all the steps besides making a new table from scratch, and it always goes back to the center.

EDIT: I have to revise this because I went back and checked it one more time after I posted...

I'm actually not sure how to "preview" it without submitting but it held in the window when I hit save... when you mentioned you imported your tables, it got me to thinking so I decided to do an experiment with the tables from my story:

After posting I went back and retried so let me revise this... I copy/pasted text from Open Office and the table shows up. It did claim to be using 75% width sizing I used, but it doesn't seem to actually be that size and I had not left aligned it in my story, it was center aligned in Open Office. So I changed it to left aligned and it instantly went to 100% width. Next I left aligned it in Open Office, when I pasted it into the editor it did not align although it still claimed to be 75% width in the properties. It maintained this state if I didn't change anything and saved, but if I tried to change anything in the table properties it snapped back to the full width.

I tried manually resizing it by pulling the right side of the table, which does make it smaller (I shrank it to roughly 60.2752%) But, if I try to change the number at all either by pixels or percent, it will snap back to 100% wide when I save. Oddly enough, once it jumps to 100% width if you pull the side to resize it it will maintain the left alignment.

I'm guessing RRs text editor just doesn't like imported table data, because after that I made another table below my imported one, resized it to what I wanted copy/pasted my text into it, and it held its alignment after I hit save. Even after entering custom numbers it didn't spring back to 100% width which the imported one did every time. I notice in your story the text box is narrow, did you resize it manually or enter a number? If you used a custom size by entering a number it's also possible it has less trouble with Word versus Open Office. But I think it's notable that there was a difference between the imported table and the built in one.

The only solutions (at least from my experiment) seem to be either 1. accept manually resized tables or 2. remake the table from scratch in RR's editor.

It's really confusing, but I hope it helps.

TheRealAlpha2 Wrote: It's really confusing, but I hope it helps.

Wow, thanks!  I really appreciate the help.  I'll try rebuilding the tables when I'm off work.  And thank you again.

Tony Wrote:

TheRealAlpha2 Wrote: It's really confusing, but I hope it helps.

Wow, thanks!  I really appreciate the help.  I'll try rebuilding the tables when I'm off work.  And thank you again.

Sure thing, I couldn't resist trying to solve this. (for my own sake as well!)

TheRealAlpha2 Wrote: Sure thing, I couldn't resist trying to solve this. (for my own sake as well!)

I just tried building my own table, and it loses alignment and goes in the middle every time still.  I tried not moving story text under the table, and the table still centers, and loses left alignment.  This is driving me nuts.  We can't be the only people to have this issue, so I'm wondering if it's new?  And if so why aren't more people saying something?

Tony Wrote: I just tried building my own table, and it loses alignment and goes in the middle every time still.  I tried not moving story text under the table, and the table still centers, and loses left alignment.  This is driving me nuts.  We can't be the only people to have this issue, so I'm wondering if it's new?  And if so why aren't more people saying something?

It's losing your formatting every time you save your properties? That's odd, using the natural tables it would hold when I saved the properties, but then again not having an actively saved chapter to test it with, I don't know for certain if my changes would still make it to public view.

Not sure why it's happening to you. Early on I saw people say the tables can have odd reactions depending on the platform they're viewed on (PC versus Mobile) so I've seen some people just not use them, preferring just to use a separate paragraph with bold text or a different font (might be one reason why there's a thread like this one to get people to use it more), while the few times I've see the tables actively used in stories they just been centered, so maybe people haven't been running into the issue or they have and just accepted the centering. I wonder also if it might have something to do with your browser and/or what plug-ins you might have running, I know I've had numerous websites brought to their knees by one or two plugins I use in Firefox. Although, nothing I use has really effected RR as far as I can tell.

I started messing around a bit more and I'm noticing Cell properties and Table properties can get confusing. Is it possible you're editing the cell properties instead of the table properties? I can change the color of the table, but if I change the color of the cell I can't see the table color anymore. It's a difference between the drop down menu you get from the top bar version the context menu you get when you click in the table itself. You might be telling the cells you want them to left align and they're do that within the table, but the table remains centered on the page because you haven't given it an instruction.

TheRealAlpha2 Wrote: Is it possible you're editing the cell properties instead of the table properties?

No, only tables.  Again, I can't tell you how much i appreciate the responses and advice and all the time you've spent on this.  I know you need to figure out for your own self, but you could have easily just done so and kept everything you learned to yourself instead of trying to help me too.  Thank you.

I'm just going to let them be center-aligned.  It doesn't look horrible, and isn't so bad.  For later full character summary tables I thought of just not having tables and just writing out the info like I did for my completed book, but that was 3.5d and the character sheets were humongous and tables just didn't work for them.   I like the orderliness tables give these new full character sheets.  

Tony Wrote: No, only tables.  Again, I can't tell you how much i appreciate the responses and advice and all the time you've spent on this.  I know you need to figure out for your own self, but you could have easily just done so and kept everything you learned to yourself instead of trying to help me too.  Thank you.

I'm just going to let them be center-aligned.  It doesn't look horrible, and isn't so bad.  For later full character summary tables I thought of just not having tables and just writing out the info like I did for my completed book, but that was 3.5d and the character sheets were humongous and tables just didn't work for them.   I like the orderliness tables give these new full character sheets.

No problem, Tony. Sorry I couldn't help more. For you sake or anyone else that runs across this thread with the same question.

Yo! Sorry I'm late to reply to your question, Tony. Just did some experimentation on my own tables and I came to the same conclusion as TheRealAlpha2. Within the chapter editor, you are able to align entire tables to the left or the right, but when previewing (or even publishing) the chapter, the tables revert back to middle alignment, regardless whether they are imported or organically rr-crafted. This is probably a bug with rr's code, so you might want to bring it up with the staff if it is a really big issue for you, but imo, middle alignment for tables are much cleaner. Can I ask why exactly did you need your table to be aligned to the left?

Ploopie Wrote: Can I ask why exactly did you need your table to be aligned to the left?

Thanks for the response and putting effort into this!  I really appreciate it.  The answer to your question is I don't.  I just thought it'd look better.  I have to make excel spreadsheets at work and I'm not used to seeing tables center aligned.  Just old habits I guess.  I made peace with it.  

Thanks again!