I am considering an upgrade from 9.63 to 9.73, largely because I am interested in the Table View feature. What marginal gain does Table View offer? How does it differ from Attribute Browser?
First, I’d suggest that if this is a no-cost update for you, then do it. In addition to feature additions (like tables) there are often performance improvements and bug fixes in releases. It’s a good idea to keep current.
As for table view – it is a tabular view of the notes in a container, with columns for the attributes you want to appear in the table. (See aTbRef, which explains the view well.) Table view is a complement, not a replacement, for attribute browser.
One nice thing about Table View is that it give a nice route to spreadsheets. If you like to use Excel or Numbers for tables, it’s about as easy as can be.
Another nice thing about tables is that they might obviate the need to go to a spreadsheet.
I tried this today on the April 2024 container for my blog. It wasn’t entirely clear on how to go about exporting the table, but I figured it out.
Technically, you’re copying the table, rather than exporting it to a file.
If you want all the rows in a view, you must select at least one row in order for Select All to be active in the Edit Menu.
From there, you can right-click anywhere in the table and you’ll get a contextual menu that includes Copy, with a submenu of various table formats. I used comma-separated values.
Then just switch to a spreadsheet or database that understands CSV formatted data and Paste.
Pretty cool!
A further question. Is it possible to use Table View de novo in a container note? That is, would one create one sample note with the necessary displayed attributes in a container, then open Table view and create new notes with values in the attribute cells and text in $Text?
Yes, this is perhaps the most common use for Table View.