Feature Guide to Interactive Tables

 

Interactive tables can greatly help organize your articles on World Anvil. They are easy to use and they let you display information which the reader can interact with.

 

World Anvil has three different systems to generate tables, each with its upsides and downsides. BBCode tables are flexible but difficult to use, while block tables are easy to use but have less flexibility. You can learn more about these two types of tables in the How to create tables with BBCode and the Feature Guide to Statblocks respectively.

   

How to create an Interactive Table

 

Interactive tables can be accessed from the Tables option in the left sidebar menu, under Advanced Tools. Clicking on the tables option will slide open a field with all your created interactive tables and a green + Table button to create a new one.

   

You can alternatively click on the green hammer button on the bottom right of your screen and select Table to create a new one.

 

1. After clicking on the "Table" button, a pop-up will appear.
2. Write the title of your table
3. Click the submit button or Shift + Enter.

 

You will be immediately redirected to the interactive tables edit interface.

 

How to edit an interactive table

 

After creating your table, you can click on it in the list of all your created tables on the left sidebar menu. It will lead you to the edit page.

   

The Architecture tab at the top has all the tools to edit how the table looks.

It's very important to note that changes to a table are not auto-saved. Always make sure to:  

• Use the Save button before leaving or reloading the page.
• Next to the Save button, the Embed button will copy a BBCode tag in your clipboard that you can paste anywhere on World Anvil.
• The Test Roll button will randomly select a row of your table if you have a Roll column (see below).

 

Adding information to the table

 

There are two plus buttons, one at the bottom to add rows and one at the right to add columns. When adding rows simply add them and fill in the fields directly with their content. When you add a new column, this modal window will appear:

   

You can type in the column header and pick the type of column you want it to be. Keep in mind that you can't change the column type after its creation.

 

Column Types

 

• Text: the default, for simple text.
• Checklist: adds a checkbox button to all rows.
• Image: for images you have uploaded to your world.
• Article: for articles that you have created in your world.
• Link/URL: for full URLs, both to internal and external World Anvil pages.
• Roll: choose this option if you want to create a rollable table (useful for RPGs). Note that the roll button will work anyway, but this column lets you specify the weight of each row using ranges.
• Dice Button: use this to create dice roller buttons for each row. In each cell, type a dice formula (such as 1d6+3) and it will be turned into an interactive dice roller in Presentation view.
• Number: for numbers and mathematical symbols.
• Long Text: it's like the Text option, but designed for longer pieces of text.
• Table: use it to link to another interactive table.

 

Tweaking the table

 

You can use the three-dots button next to each column name to reorder them using a drag-and-drop system. Additionally, when you hover a column header, an edit button will appear —use it to change the column's settings, to hide it from presentation, and to delete it. Finally, you can drag and drop the borders between the column headers to make them wider or narrower.

 

If you create a row that you no longer need, you can delete it with the bin button on the left. You can also drag-and-drop the icon to reorder the rows. If you want to delete multiple rows, click on the checkboxes of every row you wish to delete and then the red delete button that will appear at the bottom.

   

Advanced Options

 

This tab has some options you can tweak to customize how the table behaves. Each option has a question mark icon that you can mouse over to learn more.

 

General

 

• Show title: check it if you want the title you defined in the table settings to be displayed on top of the table as a header.
• Rollable: check it if you want the roll button. If you didn't add a roll column to the table, it will pick a row at random (all have the same chance).
• Enable Search: check it if you want the search bar (useful for long tables).
• Show Description: check it to display the table's description under the table.
• Enable Collapse: readers will be able to collapse the table, similar to spoilers.
• Start Collapsed: the table will be collapsed when readers access the page until they click the button to uncollapse it.

 

Style

 

You can easily tweak how the table looks without using CSS. Simply use the Style section to change background and text colors for both header and regular cells, as well as border color. You can also specify a CSS class that you can then use in your CSS stylesheet.

The tables themselves have special CSS classes applied to each element. You can find a list of them here.

 

Caution

 

Copy table

 

You can also copy the column structure of another table. In the Copy Table field in the Caution section under Advanced Options, pick the interactive table you want to copy and its structure will be copied into the current one. Keep in mind that this will then delete the current data, and it can't be undone!

 

Import table

 

If you already have a table in CSV format, you can import it directly to this system. Go to the Advanced tab and click the Import from CSV button in the Caution section. Make sure you follow the instructions you'll find in the modal window that will pop up to avoid data loss!

 

For more information and help with this check out the Tables: CSV Import guide.

 

Settings tab

 

In the settings tab you can change the title of your table as well as its description, privacy status and subscribers.

• Title: this is the header that will be displayed on top of the table.
• Description: an explanation of what the table is or represents.
• Status: you may pick if you want the table to be public or private.
• Subscribers: if the table is private, choose the subscriber groups that can see this table. More information in the feature guide to subscribers.

 

How to embed a table in an article

 

To embed a table in an article, use the Embed button on the top of the page. This will copy a BBCode tag to your clipboard that looks like [itable:ID] (where ID is a set of numbers and letters).

Simply paste it anywhere and when you view the article the table will be there. The table will look very similar to the preview, just without the editing options. Use the roll button to randomly select a row and the search bar to search inside the table.

 

Possible use-cases

 

Interactive tables is a versatile feature that can be used in many ways and for various use-cases. Here is a list of some ideas they can be used for!

 

• Shop contents for:
  • potion store
  • general store
  • adventurer's store
  • apothecary who sells magical reagents
  • a tailor who makes fine clothes (and disguises)
  • a thieves guild hall with lockpicks etc.
• common books in this world
• loot tables for common, uncommon and rare loot
• random NPC / side character table chain (age, species, profession, attitude)
• random weather table for regions of your world
• feudal hierarchy/tenure of your world's countries
• random encounter tables for different biomes
• random natural one FAILS / random natural twenty SUCCESSES
• tavern menu possibilities
• random trap table
• properties of plants and herbs
• random condition table
• interactive food
• tarot deck
• random questions for campfire time during travel (things like "share a story from your character's childhood," or "your character has a hidden talent, what is it?")
• a place to sort out your tags and make them easily searchable

 

Interactive tables examples

 

Here are some examples of what interactive tables can look like on World Anvil!

   

How to delete an interactive table

 

To delete a table, you need to click the Table option in the left sidebar menu, under Advanced Tools. You will see all your created interactive tables listed there. Mouse over the one you want to delete and click on the trash icon and then the green confirmation button.

 

You can alternatively head to the table's edit page, go to Settings and click on the delete table option on the right.