Centering Multiple Table Cells

[Kumori]

I'm in the middle of writing up a homebrew class and in making one of the tables I've run into a problem. I want to center the text within each of the cells. Is there a simple way to do this, or would I need to use the [center][/center] tags inside each individual cell?
That's over 220 cells.... ugh, I can feel the headache already!

Same question, different way of asking:
Is there an easy way to make the following table look like the centered table below it?

{table=head]Example table|Yippee!|Woot|Huh?|Oh, really...?
1|2|3|4|5
1|2|3|4|5
1|2|3|4|5[/table]

{table=head]Example table|Yippee!|Woot|Huh?|Oh, really...?

1

|

2

|

3

|

4

|

5
1

|

2

|

3

|

4

|

5
1

|

2

|

3

|

4

|

5

[/table]

Hmm... Even with individual center tags, I can't get the example table here to work. It's keeps glitching and erasing some of the tags on me whenever I click the preview button... So weird.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Hmm... Even with individual center tags, I can't get the example table here to work. It's keeps glitching and erasing some of the tags on me whenever I click the preview button... So weird.

Yeah, there is a bug in the parser. Table screws up certain tags at the beginning and end of each row unless you add a gratuitous pipe before hitting the carriage return. In other words, pretend the last cell of each row actually has an extra cell with no content after it. Like so:

{table=head]Example table|Yippee!|Woot|Huh?|Oh, really...?
[CENTER]1[/CENTER]|[CENTER]2[/CENTER]|[CENTER]3[/CENTER]|[CENTER]4[/CENTER]|[CENTER]5[/center]|
[center]1[/CENTER]|[CENTER]2[/CENTER]|[CENTER]3[/CENTER]|[CENTER]4[/CENTER]|[CENTER]5[/center]|
[center]1[/CENTER]|[CENTER]2[/CENTER]|[CENTER]3[/CENTER]|[CENTER]4[/CENTER]|[CENTER]5[/CENTER][/table]

Gives you:
{table=head]Example table|Yippee!|Woot|Huh?|Oh, really...?

1

|

2

|

3

|

4

|

5

|

1

|

2

|

3

|

4

|

5

|

1

|

2

|

3

|

4

|

5

[/table]

As to your primary question:
If you don’t mind the table itself being centered, you can place “center” tags around the whole table, and each cell will inherit the centering:

[center]{table=head]Example table|Yippee!|Woot|Huh?|Oh, really...?
1|2|3|4|5
1|2|3|4|5
1|2|3|4|5[/table][/center]

Gives you:

{table=head]Example table|Yippee!|Woot|Huh?|Oh, really...?
1|2|3|4|5
1|2|3|4|5
1|2|3|4|5[/table]

[Snowbody]

It doesn't inherit centering on my Firefox 11.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

It doesn't inherit centering on my Firefox 11.

Okay. Well, now I am wondering if it is Firefox or Opera that is misbehaving. I’ll have to go look that up.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Okay. Well, now I am wondering if it is Firefox or Opera that is misbehaving. I’ll have to go look that up.

For what is worth, it is also not being inherited in Safari.

GW

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Okay, well apparently the center tag uses the deprecated DIV align attribute rather than CSS. Of course, using a simple CSS text-align wouldn’t center the table anyway, though it does appear to center the text within it.

[Kumori]

So in the end I have to center each cell individually. Tedious, but that's just the way it is. In any case, thanks for the help.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

So in the end I have to center each cell individually. Tedious, but that's just the way it is. In any case, thanks for the help.

You could cut down on the tedium by composing the table with a text editor and then using the Find and Replace function to replace every “|” with “[center]|[/center]”. If your text editor works properly, you may also be able to make it work with the end of row cells—type it out once and the copy and paste it into the find/replace fields.

Or you could just copy a “[center]|[/center]” to the clpboard and at the end of each cell, instead of typing the whole thing out, press Ctrl-V, or ⌘-V if you are a Mac user. That makes it easier.

[Rawhide]

Or just pre-set up the table, then type your data in between the [center][/center].