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Are Tables Required Or Not?

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CodeTRUCKER:
After reading SuperBoyAC's excellent treatise on "information collectors" I thought I would examine if I was using the most efficient tool for my purposes (nothing special).  In my examination of one of the products I found a complete lack of support of tables unless I copy/pasted.  Given the developer is a most gracious person and quite competent in coding, I decided to remove myself from the exalted throne and ask myself *if* my long-held persuasion that tables were/are indispensable for collecting/organizing/presenting/storing data.

My question is... if tables are not used how does one handle the data normally contained in tables?  


FWIW - The software I am considering has everything else I need except tables.  This is the only caveat I have to overcome.

[edit]
My primary purpose for using tables is to arrange data in numerous grids of related and structured information in order to evaluate different related entities.  I do this so various items can be compared as to determine the "best" choice.  Once I have made a decision the table serves as a referential repository.  It is not uncommon for me to edit the tables numerous times a month.  You might call my grids, "Living Tables."  I hardly ever store data in any other form.  As an example, I use a table to create characters for my fiction.  Each row is a character with the columns being criteria of the character's person (eye color, hair color, build, temperament, etc).  This allows for great checking and cross-referencing of the necessary conflicting attitudes and temperaments which allows those wonderful dramatic tensions.
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peter.s:
"After reading superboyac's excellent treatise on "information collectors""

Could you share the link please?

"how does one handle the data normally contained in tables"

Well, that would depend both on the origin of the data you normally would have put into the table, and on the USE you ideally would have made of that data (if it were stored in a table) - from that point on valid advice would be possible, not without that knowledge.

I'll give two examples:

- some IMS come with "columns"; unfortunately, it's a trap to put data into those "columns" = item attributes, in most cases, bec such data will not be exportable ever after, or with difficulty

- if you don't need "live", frequent writing access to your data, why not link an item containing a .jpg of the table, to the original table? (of course, broken links probs could then occur, without proper planning: If you don't have hundreds of such external tables, putting them all together in just one directory would be preferable to splicing them up into numerous folders-by-context (= you would organize context within your IMS, not try to double it within the file system, for these)) (also, for memory/fast display reasons, is Excel mandatory, in such a coupling, e.g. for need of elaborate data processing, or is it simply a set of un-touched values, where tiny MS Works or other simple spreadsheets could be linked instead? There might be free offerings for very simple tables) (Also, a short macro could automatically load the respective original file, whenever you then display such a "special" item, even for frequent writing access, if needed; in such cases, even the copying of the "pic" of the table into the item would be counterproductive, since most of the time, the pic would be out of sync (or synching would be too much fuss) - here, just the item's title, in the tree, could contain the link, which would omit the intermediate step of first going to the content field of the item, then to trigger the link only)

As said, it all depends on the origin (and extent) of the data, and your typical access to it; just for reading of seldomly changed data, a pic of the original file, plus the link to it, would be best.

CodeTRUCKER:
...

Could you share the link please?

"how does one handle the data normally contained in tables"
...
-peter.s (February 27, 2014, 02:33 PM)
--- End quote ---

Sorry for being vague.  I edited the OP accordingly.

The "treatise" was the review Aram put together on note taking software, "Notetaking Software Roundup #1."  You'll understand why I chose the words, "information collectors" should you make it through the review. 

TaoPhoenix:
 (Raw Post)

It looks like about 2014 we're all starting to look at these "Information Programs". When you get a personal winner program, it's the only one you recommend. So I keep testing my pick, aka "MyInfo" against new uses.

This time for tables, it might work.

Let's try this screenshot.



So that is a "table" pasted from Open Office, lines 1-2. Then in MyInfo, I "corrected" a line already there, and added new data.

So ignoring the Version Control issues, is that close to what you need?

dr_andus:
My question is... if tables are not used how does one handle the data normally contained in tables?
-CodeTRUCKER (February 26, 2014, 09:26 AM)
--- End quote ---

The alternative would be some kind of a hierarchical list (i.e. outline), whereby each piece of the column data is represented as a child of the row item (parent). It's a less efficient way of presenting information, as the list gets longer than the table would have been (you have to scroll down etc.), so it's just a workaround in situations when tables are not available or are a pain to construct (such as with wiki syntax).

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