Tables

A table lines up details side by side: a packing list by person, a timetable, a comparison. You edit it like a grid, and behind the scenes it’s ordinary Markdown, so it exports cleanly and stays readable anywhere.

Insert a table

Choose Format › Table or press ⌥⌘T. Varlig inserts a small table and puts you in its first cell, with Column 1 selected so you can type a heading straight away.

To edit a table that’s already in a note, click a cell.

Move around a table

While you’re typing in a cell:

Key	What it does
Tab	Moves to the next cell. Past the last cell, it adds a row.
Shift-Tab	Moves to the previous cell. From the first cell, it returns to the note.
Return	Moves to the cell below. In the last row, it adds a row.
Escape or ⌘↩	Returns to the note.
⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z	Undo and redo, as anywhere in the note.

Bold, italic, links (⌘K), note links (⌘D) and the date shortcuts work inside cells too.

Add and remove rows and columns

These shortcuts work while you’re typing in a cell:

Action	Shortcut
Add a row below	⌃⌘↓
Add a column after	⌃⌘→
Delete the row	⌃⌘⌫
Delete the column	⌃⇧⌘⌫

The header row and a table’s last remaining column can’t be deleted.

Right-click a cell for more: add a row above or below, add a column before or after, move rows up and down or columns left and right, set the column’s alignment, or copy the whole table as Markdown, CSV or HTML.

Select several cells

While you’re typing in a cell, hold Shift and press an arrow key to select a block of cells from that one: ⇧↑ and ⇧↓ straight away, ⇧← and ⇧→ once the caret is at that end of the cell’s text or the whole text is selected. Shift-clicking another cell, or dragging from one cell into another, does the same. The block is tinted and outlined.

With a block selected:

Action	What happens
Copy (⌘C)	Puts the cells on the clipboard as tab-separated text, which Numbers, Excel and Google Sheets paste as cells, and as a Markdown table, which pastes into a note as a table. A block below the header row brings the column headings along.
Cut (⌘X)	Copies the cells, then empties them.
Delete	Empties the cells.
Paste (⌘V)	Fills cells from the block’s top-left cell and selects what it filled. A single line without tabs replaces the top-left cell’s text.

Cut and Delete are one undo step each and keep the rows and columns. Right-click a cell in the block for Copy Cells, Cut Cells and Clear Cells at the top of the menu; in a read-only note only Copy Cells works.

Typing replaces the text of the cell you started from. A click, any other key, Select All or Escape ends the selection, and a second Escape returns to the note.

| Item | Cost |
| --- | --- |
| Tent | £100 |
<!-- {"columnWidths":["narrow","default"]} -->

Because it’s part of the file, the width travels with the note to another Mac.

Tables in Markdown

A table is rows of cells separated by |, with a line of dashes under the header row. Colons in that line set each column’s alignment:

You type

| Room     | Paint     | Tins |
| :------- | :-------: | ---: |
| Kitchen  | Sage      |    2 |
| Bedroom  | Warm grey |    3 |

Varlig shows

Room	Paint	Tins
Kitchen	Sage	2
Bedroom	Warm grey	3

Separator	Alignment
`:---`	Left
`:---:`	Centre
`---:`	Right
`---`	Default

You don’t need to line the | characters up; Varlig reads the table either way.

Tables

Insert a table

Move around a table

Add and remove rows and columns

Select several cells

Paste from a spreadsheet

Copy a table out

Column widths

Tables in Markdown