Editing tables in markdown is a somewhat frustrating experience. I recently found this editor-independent library that aids in that process by automatically formatting, and changing cells with the tab key as you would expect in a spreadsheet program.
I’m not sure how much of that library could be leveraged by Obsidian, but it sure would be nice to have that functionality added.
The editing experience with this plugin reminds me of editing tables in org-mode.
I actually think it’s different. I interpret that thread as asking for a non-standard syntax to add more capabilities to tables. While I do not disagree that there might be something interesting there, this thread is not changing markdown syntax for tables. Instead it is adding a powerful aid in writing and editing the tables. It just takes the brunt work out of putting in all those pipes and reformatting it.
Echo what @tgrosinger said, and want to add another vote to this feature. I currently use sublimetext for my knowledge repo (though I’m experimenting with obsidian and am rooting for its success) and I use this plugin (https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Table%20Editor) - it’s all standard markdown tables, but, for example, pressing tab will reformat alignment of all columns, alt+shift+down will insert a blank row - so on and so forth.
It just makes working with markdown tables substantially more convenient!
What if I want to have a 2 column table with the left column having a light grey background, to make it very visual about the BEFORE (first column on grey or red background ) and AFTER (on light green background)?
If that’s possible in markdown at all, would require some tricky inline custom CSS, or it may be impossible without pasting in an HTML table you’ve edited in another app.