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Table and cell styling tools

CKEditor 5 comes with some additional tools that help you change the look of tables and table cells. You can control border color and style, background color, padding, or text alignment.

# Demo

Put the caret anywhere inside the table to open the table toolbar. Click the table properties button Table properties in the toolbar. A pop–up will open with options to shape the look of the entire table. The cell properties button Cell properties gives you access to styling options for individual table cells.

Learn more about configuring color palettes in the table styling pop–up interfaces.

The planet of robots

Humans have always searched for new places to explore and new ways to get where they wanted. Where no human could go, they would send robots to do the job for them. Mars, one of Earth's closest neighbors, is currently home to quite a few robotic devices. Those able to move around roam the planet's red sands while relaying their experience back to their mother planet.

Color coding for missions
Failed Successful In progress Planned
Country/Agency Rover Date of landing Operational time Distance traveled Notes
Soviet Union
PROP-M rover November 27, 1971 0 days 0 km Lost when it crash-landed on Mars
Soviet Union
PROP-M rover December 2, 1971 0 days 0 km Lost when Mars 3 lander stopped communicating about 20 seconds after landing
United States
Sojourner July 4, 1997 85 days 100 m (330 ft) First successful rover on Mars
United States
Spirit January 4, 2004 2269 days 7.73 km (4.80 mi)  
United States
Opportunity January 25, 2004 5498 days 45.16 km (28.06 mi) The longest distance traveled by any rover and the most days operated
United States
Curiosity January 25, 2012 3214 days 24.85 km (15.44 mi)
as of 4 March 2021
Currently active
United States
Perseverance February 18, 2021 96 days 322 m (1,056 ft)
as of 14 May 2021
Currently active
China
Zhurong May 14, 2021 11 days   Currently active
Europe
Rosalind Franklin 2029 (planned) 420 days (planned)   Planned to launch in 2028
Data source: Wikipedia

This demo presents a limited set of features. Visit the feature-rich editor example to see more in action.

# Installation

⚠️ New import paths

Starting with version 42.0.0, we changed the format of import paths. This guide uses the new, shorter format. Refer to the Packages in the legacy setup guide if you use an older version of CKEditor 5.

After installing the editor, add the feature to your plugin list and toolbar configuration:

import { ClassicEditor, Table, TableCellProperties, TableProperties, TableToolbar } from 'ckeditor5';

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        plugins: [ Table, TableToolbar, TableProperties, TableCellProperties, /* ... */ ],
        toolbar: [ 'insertTable', /* ... */ ],
        table: {
            contentToolbar: [
                'tableColumn', 'tableRow', 'mergeTableCells',
                'tableProperties', 'tableCellProperties'
            ],

            tableProperties: {
                // The configuration of the TableProperties plugin.
                // ...
            },

            tableCellProperties: {
                // The configuration of the TableCellProperties plugin.
                // ...
            }
        }
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

# Configuring styling tools

Table and cell styling tools let you create tables with colorful backgrounds and borders. These colors can be picked using color palettes in the table properties Table properties and cell properties Cell properties pop-ups. To help users choose the right colors for the content, you can pre-configure such color palettes, like in the editor below:

A beautiful color palette

Red Pink Purple Deep Purple
Indigo Blue Light Blue Cyan
Teal Green Light Green Lime
Yellow Amber Orange Deep Orange
Brown Gray Blue Gray White

With the selection inside any table cell, use the table properties Table properties and cell properties Cell properties buttons in the toolbar to check available styling and color options.

# Customizing color palettes

You can use these specific configuration options to define customized color palettes for background and border colors to match your document:

These configuration options do not impact the data loaded into the editor. This means that they do not limit or filter the colors in the data. They are used only in the user interface allowing users to pick colors in a more convenient way.

For instance, to define the same color palette for all border and background configurations, use the following code snippet:

const customColorPalette = [
    {
        color: 'hsl(4, 90%, 58%)',
        label: 'Red'
    },
    {
        color: 'hsl(340, 82%, 52%)',
        label: 'Pink'
    },
    {
        color: 'hsl(291, 64%, 42%)',
        label: 'Purple'
    },
    {
        color: 'hsl(262, 52%, 47%)',
        label: 'Deep Purple'
    },
    {
        color: 'hsl(231, 48%, 48%)',
        label: 'Indigo'
    },
    {
        color: 'hsl(207, 90%, 54%)',
        label: 'Blue'
    },

    // More colors.
    // ...
];

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        plugins: [ Table, TableToolbar, TableProperties, TableCellProperties, Bold, /* ... */ ],
        toolbar: [ 'insertTable', /* ... */ ],
        table: {
            contentToolbar: [
                'tableColumn', 'tableRow', 'mergeTableCells',
                'tableProperties', 'tableCellProperties'
            ],

            // Set the palettes for tables.
            tableProperties: {
                borderColors: customColorPalette,
                backgroundColors: customColorPalette
            },

            // Set the palettes for table cells.
            tableCellProperties: {
                borderColors: customColorPalette,
                backgroundColors: customColorPalette
            }
        }
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

# Default table and table cell styles

The table styles feature allows for configuring the default look of the tables in the editor. The configuration object should be synchronized with the editor content styles.

The “Table properties” and “Table cell properties” buttons in the toolbar will show the table and table cell properties applied to the table or table cells.

The style sheet for the editor displayed below looks as follows:

.ck-content .table {
    float: left;
    width: 550px;
    height: 450px;
}

.ck-content .table table {
    border-style: dashed;
    border-color: hsl(90, 75%, 60%);
    border-width: 3px;
}

.ck-content .table table td {
    text-align: center;
    vertical-align: bottom;
    padding: 10px
}

You must pass the same values to the editor configuration as:

const tableConfig = {
    table: {
        tableProperties: {
            // The default styles for tables in the editor.
            // They should be synchronized with the content styles.
            defaultProperties: {
                borderStyle: 'dashed',
                borderColor: 'hsl(90, 75%, 60%)',
                borderWidth: '3px',
                alignment: 'left',
                width: '550px',
                height: '450px'
            },
            // The default styles for table cells in the editor.
            // They should be synchronized with the content styles.
        tableCellProperties: {
            defaultProperties: {
                horizontalAlignment: 'center',
                verticalAlignment: 'bottom',
                padding: '10px'
            }
            }
        }
    }
};

You should align the table element to the left side by default. Its size should be 550x450px. The border style should be dashed, 3px of its width, and the color specified as Light green.

The content should be away about 10px from the cell’s edges (padding), vertically aligned to bottom and horizontally to center.

The same will be applied to new tables and cells if they are inserted into the editor.

Fuzzy space travelers

Before people could leave the cradle of humanity and enter the cosmic void, tests were required. Many animals risked and sometimes lost their lives to pave the way to the stars for humankind.

Animal spaceflight started in the late 1940s. The initial launches used German A4 rockets, but later on each country developed its own carriers. Simian, canine, and rodent space farers were the most important test subjects during the first stage of the space race, before launching human astronauts. However, animal spaceflight is very much a thing even today. In 2018, a rodent crew arrived at the International Space Station!

Animal astronauts by country of origin

American: Fruit flies; primates first flew in the 1940s.

The most memorable was Ham, a chimpanzee.

Soviet: Mostly dogs, sent to space since the 1950s.

The most memorable was Laika, who died during the first part of the journey.

French: Rats and cats (1960s).

Félicette was the most notable one and the only French cat that survived the landing.

Chinese: Mice, rats, and dogs (1960s).

Read more about all supported properties for the table and table cell features in their API documentation.

The default table and table cell styles do impact the data loaded into the editor. Default properties will not be kept in the editor model.

# Common API

# UI components

The TableProperties and TableCellProperties plugins register the following UI components:

Component name Registered by
The 'tableProperties' button TableProperties
The 'tableCellProperties' button TableCellProperties

# Toolbars

The TableProperties and TableCellProperties plugins allow adding the tableProperties and tableCellProperties items to the toolbar. You can configure its content.

# Editor commands

Command name Command class Belongs to (top-level plugin)
'tableBorderColor' TableBorderColorCommand TableProperties
'tableBorderStyle' TableBorderStyleCommand
'tableBorderWidth' TableBorderWidthCommand
'tableAlignment' TableAlignmentCommand
'tableWidth' TableWidthCommand
'tableHeight' TableHeightCommand
'tableBackgroundColor' TableBackgroundColorCommand
'tableCellBorderStyle' TableCellBorderStyleCommand TableCellProperties
'tableCellBorderColor' TableCellBorderColorCommand
'tableCellBorderWidth' TableCellBorderWidthCommand
'tableCellHorizontalAlignment' TableCellHorizontalAlignmentCommand
'tableCellWidth' TableCellWidthCommand
'tableCellHeight' TableCellHeightCommand
'tableCellPadding' TableCellPaddingCommand
'tableCellBackgroundColor' TableCellBackgroundColorCommand
'tableCellVerticalAlignment' TableCellVerticalAlignmentCommand

We recommend using the official CKEditor 5 inspector for development and debugging. It will give you tons of useful information about the state of the editor such as internal data structures, selection, commands, and many more.

# Contribute

The source code of the feature is available on GitHub at https://github.com/ckeditor/ckeditor5/tree/master/packages/ckeditor5-table.