268993 - rowspan attribute in emial table creation results in too many columns <TD>

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Mike Gross]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.1) Gecko/20040707
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.1) Gecko/20040707

When creating an HTML email with a table, "rowspan" (Cell, Advanced Edit) must
remove one column (<TD> </TD>) from the rows it is spanning into.  It currently
leaves all columns in that row and causes a "bump out" on the right side of the
table.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compose new HTML message.
2. Insert table (default 2x2 is fine).
3. With the cursor in top, left table cell, open Table Cell Properties dialog.
4. Select "Advanced Edit..."
5. Add new attribute "rowspan" with value of 2.  Select OK, OK.

Actual Results:  
Table now has three columns, instead of two.

Expected Results:  
Second row of table should have only had one <TD> </TD> set since one of the
first row's <TD> </TD> spanned into second row.

Does not matter which column has the rowspan.

Bug confuses Table's properties.  Table properties now reports a 2x3 table, but
when trying to change value back to 2x2, nothing happens.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

It isn't clear to me that this is a bug.  If you had already entered data into 
the various TD's, then changed a cell to add the rowspan, would you really want 
that TD's data to be thrown away?  What if the rowspan had been erroneous?

Whereas, it's a simple matter to right-click the extraneous cell, and select:  
Table Delete | Cell(s)

Comment 2

[Mike Gross]

(In reply to comment #1)
> It isn't clear to me that this is a bug.  If you had already entered data into 
> the various TD's, then changed a cell to add the rowspan, would you really want 
> that TD's data to be thrown away?  What if the rowspan had been erroneous?
> 
> Whereas, it's a simple matter to right-click the extraneous cell, and select:  
> Table Delete | Cell(s)

OK... I didn't see the Delete Cell(s) in the top menu bar.  I assumed that it
would have been in the popup menu (when right-clicking) or popup dialog window
(when double-clicking).

Although an alternative to throwing the cell away or shifting the row over would
be to concatenate text in the spanned cells.  I guess this would be more of an
enhancement than bug.
 

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
>(In reply to comment #1)
>> it's a simple matter to right-click the extraneous cell, and select:  
>> Table Delete | Cell(s)
> [...]
> I assumed that it would have been in the popup menu (when right-clicking)

Which I thought it was -- but on retesting, I see that this is not part of the 
context menu in TB's HTML editor; instead, it's part of Moz Composer and NVU.  
In TB, it is necessary to use (as you've discovered)
   Format | Table | Delete | Table Cell(s)


> or popup dialog window (when double-clicking).

Properties dialogs do not (should not!) provide a means to delete the object 
whose properties are being edited.


On playing with this a little more, I see that the little cell-widgets work 
badly when the cell (or column or row) exists while missing a naboring cell -- 
ideally, you'd be able to click on that little (x) above the cell to delete it 
(deleting the column, actually), but nothing happens.  That behavior is the same 
in Composer, so should be filed against   Browser|Editor:Composer.


> Although an alternative to throwing the cell away or shifting the row over
> would be to concatenate text in the spanned cells. 
> I guess this would be more of an enhancement than bug.

In my opinion, that would be more of an annoyance than an enhancement.

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #3)
> On playing with this a little more, I see that the little cell-widgets work 
> badly when the cell (or column or row) exists while missing a naboring cell

Opened bug 270438 for this.