Moving rows and columns in tables

[Andrei L.2]

Now it is impossible to move rows or columns in a table.

The shortcut ctrl+shift+up/down does not work on tables for moving rows (it works on usual paragraphs). Actually a more standard shortcut is shift+alt+up/down (not sure why you have chosen ctrl instead of alt) -- I think it is better because ctrl is usually used for selection.

The most important feature is moving rows. At least by using keyboard shortcut: ctrl+shift+up/down (or alt).

Second priority is moving columns. At least by using keyboard shortcut: ctrl+shift+left/right  (or alt).

Alternatively using drag&drop (I personally like keyboard shortcuts).

[Andrei L.2 · Accepted solution]

BTW, a little bit more testing showed that you have a cosmetic bug right now in tables.

How to reproduce:

1) create table

2) in one of the cells enter three lines of text

3) place cursor to the third line

4) press ctrl+shift+up or down multiple times

ER: consistent behaviour: whether selection or moving of text lines happens

AR: inconsistent behavior: both actions are triggered: selection and move of lines

So, basically, moving text lines conflicts with moving rows in table. Different tools handle this differently:

Microsoft Word: alt+shift+up/down will move rows in table (not text lines within same row)

Microsoft OneNote: (THE BEST) they are very intellectual. If you select first line of text in a table row and press alt+shift+up, then the whole row is moved. If you select not first line of text --- then this line of text first will be moved within row and when it becomes the first, then the whole row starts to move. In general Microsoft OneNote is very nice and stable tool which I recommend to take into account. Just imagine how many throusands of man-years Microsoft has spent on conceptualization and stabilization of OneNote. Re-use it aggressively!

Google Document: (buggy) moves lines of texts only (never rows), and when line is the last in the row then it starts to travel to next column (not row!!), and sometimes it results in very buggy behaviour like damaging the table (few times it even damaged the document and I had to restore older version). So dont use alt+shift+up/down in tables of google document.

Atlassian Confluence: it does not support alt+shift+up/down. This shortcut in table inserts empty rows. However they have a special shortcut for cut and paste rows in table. I use it for reorganizing rows in table. Not very nice, but better than nothing.

[Simon L.14]

Yep, That would be a really handy feature 🙂 +1 for Andrei L.

[bjornsyse]

I agress, OneNote really has an exemplary solution to this. 

[Zed · Accepted solution]

Hello @Andrei L.2,

We really appreciate your detailed feedback and updates on this, definately passing it on to the Paper team!

Thank you!