@gmedlock
You hit the nail on the head. And I am not in any way bashing Jerry by saying that. Jerry is very active in this forum and extremely helpful. I disagree about his contention that Casey made a “valid point” though, for reasons I will now explain.
Regarding others having piled onto me in this thread in the past, believe me, the same folks have done it in other threads. There are many well-intentioned and otherwise very helpful people who sometimes are deeply embedded in a forum and who tend to dislike forum newcomers who very strongly and repetitively appeal for some big change. They think certain feature requests are not necessary or perhaps feel any such change would take away some kind of goodness they already have. They also hate it when you mention another web design tool, as I have, even though it’s clear I used the tool in the past and have now embraced Blocs. And repetition of your request often drives them to post overly aggressive things against you. The straw that really breaks the camel’s back is when you write lengthy defensive posts as I do. I think that’s because these folks are used to shutting down others quickly, whereas I don’t back down on things I am passionate about.
People who have jumped on me in the forums also seem to mistakenly think that I am not grateful enough or that I don’t see how great Blocs is. Those folks miss the point of the “Wish List” entirely. Why I need to say “thank you” in every single post, or be so humble so as to never ask for anything is something I personally cannot understand.
As you can see from the age of this thread, I gave up all hope that a dedicated Table Tool would happen in Blocs. That isn’t me bashing Blocs. That isn’t me bashing its great developer, which I would never do because I know he is an amazing person with whom I talk a lot to privately. He has added a huge number of features that I alone have touted, in fact. It’s always very humbling and delightful to me when that happens. But since a Table Tool wasn’t forthcoming, I had to do a huge amount of manual labor to implement tables on my site. That isn’t me bashing Blocs, its developer, or people in this forum — it’s just reality.
The example web page I posted for you earlier is the fruit of my labors. And what I do now is Duplicate those tables on other pages in my Blocs websites and then hand-manipulate them into whatever other table variant I need. Compared to Freeway Pro, which I used in years past, it can take an entire day to get a table right, versus a dedicated tool which would have a very complex table done in perhaps 30 minutes. But the best I can do in Blocs is find a way to make my goals achievable. I am a Bloc user true and true now. I don’t use any other tools to help me design for the web.
It saddens me that I am among a rare few people who seem to need a Table Tool for tabular data. It would be a great productivity booster. Surely if MOST people needed it, there would be a dedicated tool by now. But I think it is something based on demand. Sure, it’s probably very hard to create a “responsive” table tool in Blocs, whereas the non-responsive tools like Freeway Pro used were much easier to create for its developer. But the fact is that tables are quite hard and time consuming to create by hand for Blocs users, even if you have an existing Blocs table to use as a template.
I will admit that the more you use Blocs, the faster you become with it. That helps keep me sane when I create new tables in Blocs. But it still takes a lot of time and fiddly operations to get it to look right across all breakpoints.
Based on what you have written in this thread, I consider you a friend in this forum. I will now humbly offer my personal advice…
Whenever you have a new feature you feel passionate about, don’t allow anyone in the forum to shame you. Boldly present it (tactfully and kindly, of course), and see where it leads. I think you have done that in this thread, and I applaud your passion! I am a firm believer in “Ask and ye shall receive” and “If you don’t ask, you won’t receive.” If I see similar posts of passion from you in this forum, I will back you even if I don’t need the same feature myself. That’s what the Wish List is for. I never feel personally threatened by the feature requests of fellow Blocs users, nor do I try to argue with them about why their passion is unnecessary.
You and I are in some ways kindred spirits. On Monday when I get into the office, I will create a stripped down single page version of my big table so you can more easily see what I did and therefore be able to, perhaps, replicate my manual creation technique in your own sites. It’s still not as good as a dedicated table tool would be, but it’s the best we have for now. I’ve not seen anyone else in this forum who has bested my tables in Blocs either. That’s not so much tooting my own horn as it is a shocking example of just how few people are like us and want tabular data presented in a responsive table.