How to re-Tabulizing an existing table

ReTabulizing an Existing Table

Take a table that is already in the article - whether Tabulizer built it or not - and give it a different look, different behaviour, or different data.

What it is for

ReTabulize answers two quite different complaints with one mechanism.

A Tabulizer table you want to change

You built a static table last month in Elemental 2 Blue and the page has been redesigned around green. Or the figures have moved on. Rather than deleting it and starting again, point ReTabulize at it: the data comes back out, you edit it, you pick a new ruleset, and the table is replaced.

A table Tabulizer never touched

An old article has a plain HTML table someone pasted in years ago. ReTabulize will adopt it - read its cells, apply a ruleset, and hand you back a styled table with whatever sorting, filtering and paging the ruleset provides. This is the quickest way to bring legacy content up to standard.

It works on a table in the editor, not on a data source. If the article holds a {tabulizer:data_source[…]} tag rather than a table, there is nothing here to reTabulize - change the data source itself instead.

Getting there

Edit the article that contains the table. Open CMS Content › Tabulizer in the editor toolbar, and on step 1 choose ReTabulize Existing Table. Tutorial 8 walks through the toolbar button and the mode cards in more detail.

The table has to be in the editor you are working in. ReTabulize scans the article's own content - it cannot reach a table in a module, in another article, or on a page you have not opened.

Step 2 - pick the table

The wizard scans the editor as soon as you arrive. What happens next depends on what it finds.

What it finds	What you see
No tables	A message saying so, and a shortcut across to New Static Table - because that is almost certainly what you meant.
Exactly one table	It is shown on its own, ready to go.
Several tables	A list, plus three filters for finding the right one.

Step 2 of the Tabulizer wizard in ReTabulize mode, showing a note that multiple HTML tables were found, filters for cell text, CSS class and id attribute, and a list of two tables each showing its id, its ruleset class and a preview of its cell contents.

Each entry in the list shows the table's id, its class - which names the ruleset, if Tabulizer built it - and a run of its actual cell text. That preview is usually enough to tell two tables apart at a glance. When it is not, the filters narrow the list:

Filter	Matches
Filter by cell text	Tables containing that word or phrase in any cell. The one to reach for - type a value you know is in the table.
Filter by CSS class	Tables whose class contains the value. Useful for “show me only the blue ones”.
Filter by id attribute	The single table with exactly that id.

Click the table you want. The wizard remembers which one you picked, so it can put the new table back in the same place.

Step 3 - the data, handed back to you

This is the part people do not expect. ReTabulize does not simply restyle the markup - it reads the table's cells out into CSV and drops them into the same editing box the Typed Text source uses.

Step 3 of the Tabulizer wizard, Configure Data Source, with a green note saying the data from the selected table has been extracted and pre-filled, above a CSV Data box containing three quoted rows of header and data values.

So you can correct a typo, add a row, or rewrite the lot before the new table is generated. Leave it untouched if all you came for was a different ruleset.

Values come back wrapped in double quotes. That is deliberate - it keeps any cell that contains a comma in one piece. Leave the quoting alone unless you are changing the enclosure setting too.

Only the text of each cell survives this round trip. Formatting inside cells - a bolded word, a link, an image - is not carried across, because the cells are being rebuilt from their text. If a table has hand formatting you care about, edit it directly in the editor instead of reTabulizing it.

Step 4 - the new ruleset

Exactly the same step as for a new static table: choose an Archive, then a Ruleset from inside it. This is where the restyling actually happens, and nothing stops you from picking the same ruleset the table already had - that is the normal choice when you only came to fix the data.

Step 5 - confirm, and what “replace” means

Step 5 of the Tabulizer wizard in ReTabulize mode, with a summary listing Mode ReTabulize Existing HTML Table, Data Source Table 2, Archive Elemental 2 Orange and the chosen ruleset, above an amber warning that the selected table will be replaced and any associated Tabulizer tags removed.

The note on this step is the one to read: the selected HTML table in the editor will be replaced with the newly generated table, and any associated Tabulizer tags will also be removed before insertion.

That second clause matters. The old table's {tabulizer:include style[…]} marker is taken out along with the table, and a fresh one for the new ruleset is put in. Without that, an article reTabulized three times would be carrying three stylesheet markers, two of them for rulesets no longer in use.

Replaced, not appended. A table that was reTabulized is still one table, in the position it always occupied - the article does not grow a second copy.

Common questions

Can I reTabulize a table that Tabulizer did not create?

Yes, and it is one of the best uses for this mode. Any HTML table in the editor can be adopted - it just has no ruleset class for the list to show.

Does it change the data source?

There is no data source involved. This mode works on HTML in the article and creates nothing in the Tabulizer component.

Can I reTabulize a dynamic table?

No. A dynamic table is a tag, not a table, and there are no cells in the editor to read. To restyle one, edit the data source and change its ruleset - that updates every article using it.

I lost the bold text in a cell.

Expected - cells are rebuilt from their text. Apply the formatting again in the editor afterwards, or avoid reTabulizing tables you have hand-formatted.

The wizard says no tables were found.

Either the article genuinely has none, or what looks like a table is a data source tag. The shortcut button on that message takes you to New Static Table, which is usually the right answer.

I picked the wrong table.

Use Back before inserting. If you have already inserted, the article's own undo will step it back, and the Versions button keeps saved revisions.

Bring an old table up to date

Open the article, then CMS Content › Tabulizer › ReTabulize Existing Table.

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