Behavioural differences between web and desktop versions of WordPress

  • Unknown's avatar
    swampym57 · Member ·

    I am new to WordPress. I am just trying it out to see if I actually want to proceed with my project to use it. I am getting concerned about early odd behaviour and need to be reassured that this will not get worse over time.

    My first issue is where I try to create a table. On the browser based version {Safari, Macintosh} I can insert a table with two columns. There seems to be no control ovder the appearance of the columns – I had to accept two the same width. I wanted one to be a label and the right be a block of text. The only way I could make this look half decent is to right align the left column and leave the right left aligned. Not perfect but a reasonable compromise.

    I then opened my web page on a desktop version of WordPress and the table fell to pieces. The columns reverted to separate vertical cells with what was the left column at the start right aligned and the right column left aligned taking the second cell. There seems to be no way to define a table in the desktop version as the interface is missing these choices as far as I can tell.

    Hopefully I am simply missing something or at worse, there are significant differences between the web based and desktop based versions of WorkPress. This is most unsatisfactory and not what one would expect of a seamlessly integrated system.

    Fingers crossed.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    Can you provide the page URL where you are implementing your table so we can take a look? Our support page provides an overview on how to use Tables with WordPress.com:

    https://en.support.wordpress.com/advanced-html/#tables

    Are you using the Table Block from the new WordPress.com Editor?

    Insert a Table

    Or are you still using the classic editor? Tables are best for displaying tabular data, like a simple list of names, dates or numbers. Tables are not recommended for creating a columnar page layout. We recommend using columns for that instead.

    https://en.support.wordpress.com/advanced-html/#columns

  • Unknown's avatar
    swampym57 · Member ·

    Hi, this is the web page I was trying to start a table on.

    https://wordpress.com/block-editor/page/playaroundnet.wordpress.com/31

    If I open it via the Web based tool it has a narrow column right aligned to the right of the screen and a left aligned set of paragraphs.

    I cannot seem to be able to control any of the characteristics of the table, like width of individual column, overall table width. It just does what it feels like.

    When I open it with the dedicated application {version 4.0.0} the appearance gets screwed up and becomes unintelligible.

    Cheers.

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    There should be an option to change the table settings of the cells from fixed width to variable under the styles module of the table block:

    Insert a Table

    Alternatively, you can go back to the classic editor to change the variable width of table cells. You can switch to the classic editor by clicking on the three dots (next to the cog icon) at the top of the post or page editor and selecting “Switch to Classic Editor”.

    Please try one of those methods to see if you can adjust the table to your liking and let me know if it works for you.

    Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    swampym57 · Member ·

    I think I am going to use another product that has tables built in that make sense and are easy to configure. Thanks.

  • The topic ‘Behavioural differences between web and desktop versions of WordPress’ is closed to new replies.