Tables for 2023?

It’s the year 2023, and Figma still doesn’t have native table support.

I just spent 30 minutes re-jigging all the “cells” in a four-row, six-column fake table because I had to delete one column, add another, add icons, and then manually re-fit/resize all the cells to get things to align properly.

I can either fake a table row with a horizontal autolayout, or fake a table column with a vertical autolayout, but it’s still not a table.

I want the ability to create a special frame called a Table, that:

  • has an arbitrary number of columns and rows
  • auto-resizes columns evenly based on content width
  • has one or more Header / footer rows
  • can scroll with overflow content (optional)
  • has optional properties for hover / click states (cell, column or row)
  • has optional properties for alternate-line shading
  • can toggle columns or rows to hide as needed
  • can merge or split cells as needed
  • can set text alignment for a column (center, left, right, or currency / decimal)
  • can set to automatically use monospace / lining text figures for numbers
  • can contain triggers like checkboxes / batch select etc.
  • can be sortable based on column header (click twice to sort a-z/z-a, etc.)

If these features existed, I could speed up my work by at least 75%, because enterprise IT interfaces are full of tables and forms, and putting together text boxes with autolayouts to fake it is like tying post-its together with rubber bands and string. :slight_smile:

The best table-building feature I’ve ever used is in Omnigraffle, that old diagramming software for Mac. In fact, if I have to wireframe a table, I’ll fire it up and export the artwork as an image for Figma.

I think Figma should benchmark the Omnigraffle functionality!
table-builder