I am testing Obsidian since a few days. It’s a very cool app if you wanna have max. compatibility to the “mark down format”. How ever: in my Notes I’m using always a lot of tables. And tables are a mess in Obsidian or generally in md.
I installed the plugins “Advanced Tables” & “Markdown Table Editor”. They make life a little bit easier but it’s still far away from comfort. One big Problem ist, that you can’t set the width of columns, you can’t use lists inside, line brakes and so on.
How do you handle this problem?
Is there any solution out there I didn’t know?
Or should I stop working with Obsidian and find another solution?
What solution would you suggest to me as an alternative?
Thanks for your comments!
I did have a look at all your links. But they are not solutions for me because they don’t make the workflow easier, they make them more complicated. If I use an app it should safe time, not waste time. Although the tables look still very ugly or even more ugly in editing mode with these hacks. Sorry.
So the only solution seems to be the hope of the roadmap. Is there anything known about a time line?
Or still my other question: Any suggestions for a similar app that handles tables better than Obsidian?
I’m quite certain that you can expect the roadmap feature being similarly limiting table editing experience as in MarkText for example. My understanding is that MarkText offers the best possible way to edit markdown tables, so you could view it as a reference to decide if you want to use markdown as your writing platform.
I’m with some of the other guys here that you might want to reconsider your approach using (or stretching the use of) tables like you’re talking about.
I’m thinking that most likely will markdown never be able to include some of that block level formatting within a table. You might want to look into the logical structure of the information you want to present and look for other ways more in line with the markdown philosophy of structuring and presenting information.
Then again, that’s just my two cents on the subject.
For anyone using the Apple system, there are a couple of ‘helper’ apps I’ve found: Markup Table on the Mac, and Tables on iOS/iPadOS. You can create a new table easily in either of these apps and copy the result to the clipboard as Markdown, then just paste into your note.
This doesn’t help with editing the table, unless you want to keep round tripping, but can ease the initial creation of a complex table.
Thank you all for your comments!
I think if the tables in obsidian would be similar to “MarkText” in the near future, I could life with that. This app shows that tables even in mark down format could be much more comfortable.
For even more complex tables I’ll use Apples numbers.app and integrate the files.
I fully agree, Obsidians default tables are a delusion at the point to drop them completely. An update is high time.
I wouldn’t suggest anyone to use tables in Obsidian unless you use Tony Grosingers Advanced Tables. You mentioned already that you installed this plugin but I want to stress nevertheless how important this plugin is.
Advanced Tables is a must and combined with external tools (people mentioned apps, I use my own, self-build workflows) tables are a lot less complicated to use.
Thank you @Jopp Now I no longer have to believe that I am alone with my problem ;). However I would prefer the other plugin: Markdown Table Editor
It’s the only plugin to edit tables in live view.