MapInfo Pro

 View Only
Back to discussions
Expand all | Collapse all

MapInfo Monday: Table List

  • 1.  MapInfo Monday: Table List

    Employee
    Posted 05-01-2023 02:44
    Edited by Peter Møller 09-04-2023 03:24

    Happy #MapInfoMonday!

    Today, I want to give you some tips on working with tables. More specifically, I will tell you how you can do things easier by using the Table List when you need to work with a table in MapInfo Pro.

    Most actions you do on a table start by asking you which table you want to use for the action. We have however taken some of the most used actions and added these to the context menu of the Table List giving you a shortcut to perform these actions on one or more tables.

    The Table List can be embedded into the Explorer Window as you can see below. That's probably the way most users have it.


    But you can also have it in a standalone window if you prefer. The preferences for the Explorer Window allow you to control which sections you want to have embedded.

    Below you can see the Table List in its own window. You can dock this window similar to the way you dock the Explorer Window.


    At the top of the Table List, you can control the grouping and sort order of the tables listed. The tables can be sorted by name or by when they were opened. You can also control the sort order, descending or ascending.

    You can also check the option to Group By Type. This will list the tables in groups depending on their type. This could be types like WFS, Tile Server, WMS, Native, and others. In the image above, you can see the tables grouped by type.

    And now the final part: the context menu. When you right-click on a table in the Table List, you will be presented with the context menu. This allows you to do "something" with the selected table(s). Below you can see the full context menu. Note that the menu items get disabled if you have selected a table that doesn't support a given action.

    At the top, you can quickly select all from a table, or show the table in a new browser or mapper window.
    Then you have access to saving a copy of the table, exporting, or renaming the selected table. Some of these allow you to select multiple tables. Export as an example lets you select multiple tables to export.

    You can also quickly open the folder where the table is placed via Windows Explorer or copy the path to the table.

    Accessing the Table Structure for a table is probably one of my favorite shortcuts from the Table List. I just find it easier than accessing the same option on the Table tab in a dropdown menu. In fact, you don't need to right-click and select Table Structure dialog from the context menu. You can just double-click on a native table to open up the Table Structure dialog.

    And finally, you can also quickly close one or more tables from this context menu.

    Are you using the context menu from the Table List? Which shortcut is your favorite? Do you think we are missing a few shortcuts?

    ------------------------------
    Peter Horsbøll Møller
    Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
    Precisely | Trust in Data
    ------------------------------