Tables: creating, editing, sorting and shaping

Org tables are plain text: every line that starts with | is a table row, and org.nvim keeps the columns lined up for you while you type. This file covers everything you can do with a table without formulas: creating tables (by typing, from CSV/TSV text, from a file), aligning, moving around, adding, deleting and moving rows and columns, horizontal lines, copying a series down, sorting, transposing, alignment and width cookies, shrinking columns, column groups, links and markup in cells, names and captions, exporting a table to a file and table.el tables.

Formulas (#+TBLFM:, $3=$1*$2, vsum(@2..@-1) …) have their own file: 16-spreadsheet.org.

• The file starts folded (#+STARTUP: overview). Put the cursor on a heading and press <Tab> to open it; <S-Tab> cycles the whole buffer.
• <prefix> means your org prefix, <leader>o by default (with the bundled init file the leader is <Space>, so <prefix>Tc is <Space>oTc). Emacs keys (<C-c>|, <C-c>^ …) work too.
• The exercises change the tables in place. u undoes an exercise, so you can press u and do the next one on the original table. git checkout examples/15-tables.org restores the whole file.
• g? lists every key of the buffer; type /table in that list to see the table keys.
• Lines starting with Try: are exercises. Expect: shows the exact result. Expected tables are shown inside #+begin_example blocks so that they are plain text (the table commands leave them alone).
• Lines starting with =# = are Org comments: they explain the example next to them and are never exported.

Start Neovim from the repository root with the bundled init file (it sets the agenda files to examples/*.org and a scratch org_directory, so your own notes are never touched):

nvim -u examples/minimal_init.lua examples/15-tables.org

Two things about keys before you start:

• Every table key under the prefix starts with T (<prefix>Tc, <prefix>Ts …); <prefix>T itself does nothing, so you can pause after it (which-key, if installed, then lists the table keys).
• The <M-...> keys need a terminal that sends Alt. If <M-j> does nothing, the arrow forms <M-Down> <M-Up> <M-Left> <M-Right> do the same thing. <S-CR> needs a terminal that can tell it from <CR> (see "Copy down" below for tmux).

A table is a block of consecutive lines that start with | (spaces before the | are allowed). Inside a line, | separates the fields. A line that starts with |- is a horizontal line (an "hline"); it has no fields. The rows above the first hline are the header: they are exported as column titles. The first line that does not start with | ends the table.

What you see above:

• Every row has the same number of fields, padded with spaces so the | line up. You never type that padding yourself: org.nvim aligns the table.
• Columns where at least half the non-empty fields are numbers ("Moons", "Radius") are right-aligned; the others are left-aligned.
• The hline |---------+-------+...| has a + where a | would be.
• A table can have several hlines; they split it into sections (the sort command uses them, see "Sorting rows").

A table does not need a header or an hline. This is a table too:

Any table command aligns the table it works on. You can also align on demand:

• <C-c><C-c> (or <prefix><CR>) with the cursor anywhere in the table.
• Leaving Insert mode (<Esc>) inside a table aligns it.
• Aligning adds the missing fields of short rows, turns |- into a full hline, and trims extra spaces in fields.

Try: put the cursor on "cherries" in the little table at the end of the previous section and press <C-c><C-c>.

Expect: the fields line up and 12 is right-aligned:

| apples   |  3 |
| pears    |  5 |
| cherries | 12 |

The table below is a real mess on purpose: fields of different widths, a row with a missing field, a row with an extra field, a bare |- line and a row without a closing |.

Try: put the cursor anywhere in the table and press <C-c><C-c>.

Expect: five columns (the "extra" field made the table wider), every short row padded, the |- turned into a full line:

| Name     | Language | Stars |       |
|----------+----------+-------+-------|
| org.nvim | Lua      |    42 |       |
| neorg    | Lua      |       |       |
| orgmode  | Lua      |  3100 | extra |

Try: in the aligned table, put the cursor on "Lua" in the first data row, press ea (append at the end of the word), type = and Neovim=, then press <Esc>.

Expect: leaving Insert mode widened the "Language" column:

| Name     | Language       | Stars |       |
|----------+----------------+-------+-------|
| org.nvim | Lua and Neovim |    42 |       |
| neorg    | Lua            |       |       |
| orgmode  | Lua            |  3100 | extra |

While you are in Insert mode inside a table:

• Every move aligns the table first, so the columns grow as you type.
• Hlines are skipped.
• <Tab> in the last field of the last row adds a row.
• <CR> on the last row, or on a row followed by an hline, inserts an empty row below it.
• The cursor lands at the start of the field. What you type is inserted before the text already there; to replace a field, empty it first with <C-c><Space> in Normal mode (see "Field helpers").

Try: put the cursor on "Review", press A (end of the line), then <Tab> and type Wed, <Tab> Deploy, <Tab> 3, <Esc>.

Expect: <Tab> after the last field created the "Wed" row:

| Day | Task        | Hours |
|-----+-------------+-------|
| Mon | Write specs |     2 |
| Tue | Review      |     1 |
| Wed | Deploy      |     3 |

Try: u. Put the cursor on "Mon", press i, then <CR> twice and type Fri, <Esc>.

Expect: the first <CR> went to "Tue"; the second one found no row below and inserted one:

| Day | Task        | Hours |
|-----+-------------+-------|
| Mon | Write specs |     2 |
| Tue | Review      |     1 |
| Fri |             |       |

Try: u. Put the cursor on "Day" (the header), press i, <CR>, type Sun, <Esc>.

Expect: the header is followed by the hline, so <CR> inserted a new row right under the header, above the hline:

| Day | Task        | Hours |
| Sun |             |       |
|-----+-------------+-------|
| Mon | Write specs |     2 |
| Tue | Review      |     1 |

Try: u. Put the cursor on "1" (the Hours of Tue), press i, then <S-Tab> three times and type Big =, =<Esc>.

Expect: <S-Tab> went back Task, Day, then to the last field of the previous row (Mon's Hours), where "Big " was inserted before "2":

| Day | Task        | Hours |
|-----+-------------+-------|
| Mon | Write specs | Big 2 |
| Tue | Review      | 1     |

Ways to make an hline:

• Type |- on a new line and press <Tab> (Insert mode) or <C-c><C-c>.
• <prefix>T- or <C-c>-: insert an hline below the current row.
• 1<C-c>- (any count): insert it above the current row.
• <C-c><CR>: insert an hline below the current row and move to the row under it, creating an empty row when there is none.

An hline is a row like any other for <M-k> / <M-j> (move) and <M-K> (delete).

Try: cursor on "Quarter", press <prefix>T-.

Expect: a header line now separates the titles:

| Quarter | Revenue |
|---------+---------|
| Q1      |     100 |
| Q2      |     120 |
| Q3      |      90 |
| Total   |     310 |

Try: (keep the result) cursor on "Total", press 1<C-c>-.

Expect: an hline above "Total":

| Quarter | Revenue |
|---------+---------|
| Q1      |     100 |
| Q2      |     120 |
| Q3      |      90 |
|---------+---------|
| Total   |     310 |

Try: u u. Cursor on "Total", press <C-c><CR>.

Expect: an hline below Total and a new empty row, with the cursor in it:

| Quarter | Revenue |
| Q1      |     100 |
| Q2      |     120 |
| Q3      |      90 |
| Total   |     310 |
|---------+---------|
|         |         |

Try: u. On the empty line of the practice area below, type i|Col A|Col B <Esc>, then o|- <Esc>, then <C-c><C-c>.

Expect:

| Col A | Col B |
|-------+-------|

All in Normal mode, with the cursor anywhere in the row:

<M-CR> also works in Insert mode. Plain Vim works as well: dd deletes the row, p pastes it, yyp duplicates it; the table is aligned by the next table command.

Try: cursor on "Apple", press <M-j>.

Expect: Apple and Banana swapped; the cursor stays on Apple:

| Fruit  | Qty | Price |
|--------+-----+-------|
| Banana |  12 |  0.25 |
| Apple  |   3 |  0.50 |
| Cherry |  40 |  0.10 |

Try: u. Cursor on "Cherry", press <M-k> twice.

Expect: Cherry is the first data row:

| Fruit  | Qty | Price |
|--------+-----+-------|
| Cherry |  40 |  0.10 |
| Apple  |   3 |  0.50 |
| Banana |  12 |  0.25 |

Try: u u. Cursor on "Apple", press <M-k> once.

Expect: Apple swapped places with the hline: it is now part of the header.

| Fruit  | Qty | Price |
| Apple  |   3 |  0.50 |
|--------+-----+-------|
| Banana |  12 |  0.25 |
| Cherry |  40 |  0.10 |

Try: u. Cursor on "Banana", press <M-K> (or <prefix>TR).

Expect:

| Fruit  | Qty | Price |
|--------+-----+-------|
| Apple  |   3 |  0.50 |
| Cherry |  40 |  0.10 |

Try: u. Cursor on "Banana", press <M-J>.

Expect: an empty row above Banana (the cursor is in it):

| Fruit  | Qty | Price |
|--------+-----+-------|
| Apple  |   3 |  0.50 |
|        |     |       |
| Banana |  12 |  0.25 |
| Cherry |  40 |  0.10 |

Try: u. Cursor on "Banana", press <M-CR> (or <prefix>Tr).

Expect: an empty row below Banana:

| Fruit  | Qty | Price |
|--------+-----+-------|
| Apple  |   3 |  0.50 |
| Banana |  12 |  0.25 |
|        |     |       |
| Cherry |  40 |  0.10 |

Try: u. Cursor on "Apple", press i (Insert mode), then <M-CR>, type Kiwi, <Tab>, 5, <Esc>.

Expect:

| Fruit  | Qty | Price |
|--------+-----+-------|
| Apple  |   3 |  0.50 |
| Kiwi   |   5 |       |
| Banana |  12 |  0.25 |
| Cherry |  40 |  0.10 |

Normal mode, cursor anywhere in the column:

Try: cursor on "Fruit", press <M-l>.

Expect: the Fruit column moved one place right:

| Qty | Fruit  | Price |
|-----+--------+-------|
|   3 | Apple  |  0.50 |
|  12 | Banana |  0.25 |
|  40 | Cherry |  0.10 |

Try: (keep it) press <M-l> again, then <M-h> twice.

Expect: back to the original table: the cursor follows the column.

Try: cursor on "Qty", press <M-H> (or <prefix>TI).

Expect:

| Fruit  | Price |
|--------+-------|
| Apple  |  0.50 |
| Banana |  0.25 |
| Cherry |  0.10 |

Try: u. Cursor on "Qty", press <M-L> (or <prefix>Ti).

Expect: an empty column appeared where Qty was, and Qty moved right:

| Fruit  |   | Qty | Price |
|--------+---+-----+-------|
| Apple  |   |   3 |  0.50 |
| Banana |   |  12 |  0.25 |
| Cherry |   |  40 |  0.10 |

Try: <M-h> on the first column, or <M-l> on the last one.

Expect: the message "Cannot move column further" and no change.

<S-Up> <S-Down> <S-Left> <S-Right> swap the field under the cursor with its neighbour and follow it. Only that one field moves; the rest of the row stays. Hlines are jumped over. Exception: on a timestamp, the <S-arrows> change the date instead (as everywhere in Org).

Try: cursor on "gym", press <S-Right> twice.

Expect: "gym" travelled to the Wed column; swim and yoga moved left:

| Mon  | Tue  | Wed  |
|------+------+------|
| swim | yoga | gym  |
| read | code | cook |

Try: u u. Cursor on "gym", press <S-Down>.

Expect:

| Mon  | Tue  | Wed  |
|------+------+------|
| read | swim | yoga |
| gym  | code | cook |

Try: u. Cursor on "swim", press <S-Up>.

Expect: it jumped over the hline and swapped with the header "Tue":

| Mon  | swim | Wed  |
|------+------+------|
| gym  | Tue  | yoga |
| read | code | cook |

<S-CR> (Normal or Insert mode) copies the current field into the row below and moves there, adding a row when the table ends (or an hline follows). While copying it increments:

• a number: +1, or +the difference to the field above when that field is a number too (so 5, 10 continues 15, 20);
• text that starts or ends with a number (Item 1, Room 101, 3 apples): that number, same rule;
• a timestamp: +1 day, or +the difference in days to a timestamp above (so a weekly series stays weekly);
• anything else is copied unchanged.

In an empty field, <S-CR> fills it from the nearest non-empty field above (with a count N: the Nth one above) and stays in that row.

Set table_copy_increment = false to copy without incrementing, or to a number to use that step.

Note for tmux: <S-CR> arrives as <CR> unless extended keys are on (set -s extended-keys on and set -as terminal-features 'xterm*:extkeys').

Try: cursor on "1" (the Step), press <S-CR> three times.

Expect:

| Step | Task   | Due              |
|------+--------+------------------|
|    1 | Item 1 | <2026-10-05 Mon> |
|    2 |        |                  |
|    3 |        |                  |
|    4 |        |                  |

Try: u (three times) and do the same on "Item 1", twice.

Expect:

| Step | Task   | Due              |
|------+--------+------------------|
|    1 | Item 1 | <2026-10-05 Mon> |
|      | Item 2 |                  |
|      | Item 3 |                  |

Try: u u. Now on the date, twice.

Expect: one day at a time, with the right weekday:

| Step | Task   | Due              |
|------+--------+------------------|
|    1 | Item 1 | <2026-10-05 Mon> |
|      |        | <2026-10-06 Tue> |
|      |        | <2026-10-07 Wed> |

The next table already has two rows, so the difference is repeated.

Try: cursor on "10", press <S-CR> twice.

Expect: steps of 5:

|  n | label    | when             |
|----+----------+------------------|
|  5 | Room 101 | <2026-10-05 Mon> |
| 10 | Room 103 | <2026-10-12 Mon> |
| 15 |          |                  |
| 20 |          |                  |

Try: u u. On "Room 103", twice.

Expect: steps of 2:

|  n | label    | when             |
|----+----------+------------------|
|  5 | Room 101 | <2026-10-05 Mon> |
| 10 | Room 103 | <2026-10-12 Mon> |
|    | Room 105 |                  |
|    | Room 107 |                  |

Try: u u. On "<2026-10-12 Mon>", twice.

Expect: a weekly series:

|  n | label    | when             |
|----+----------+------------------|
|  5 | Room 101 | <2026-10-05 Mon> |
| 10 | Room 103 | <2026-10-12 Mon> |
|    |          | <2026-10-19 Mon> |
|    |          | <2026-10-26 Mon> |

In an empty field <S-CR> fetches the value from above:

Try: cursor in the empty Colour field of the last row, press <S-CR>.

Expect: "blue" copied into it, and no new row:

| Colour | Size |
|--------+------|
| red    | S    |
| blue   | M    |
| blue   |      |

Try: u, then in the same empty field press 2<S-CR>.

Expect: the 2nd non-empty field above ("red"):

| Colour | Size |
|--------+------|
| red    | S    |
| blue   | M    |
| red    |      |

<prefix>Ts (Emacs C-c ^) sorts rows by the column under the cursor. A menu asks for the kind of sort:

Only the rows between the hlines around the cursor are sorted: the header and the other sections stay where they are. Rows that compare equal keep their order.

<prefix>Tt turns rows into columns and columns into rows. Hlines are dropped (add one again with <prefix>T- if you want a header).

Try: cursor anywhere in the table, <prefix>Tt.

Expect:

| Fruit | Apple | Banana | Cherry |
| Qty   |     3 |     12 |     40 |
| Price |  0.50 |   0.25 |   0.10 |

Try: <prefix>Tt again.

Expect: the original table, minus its hline.

A width cookie <N> (or <lN>, <cN>, <rN> with an alignment) limits how much of a column is shown. It never cuts your text: the table is aligned to the full text, and the column is only narrowed on screen when you shrink it:

• <C-c><Tab> in a column: shrink it, or show it again. A column with a width cookie shows its first N characters followed by …; a column without a cookie collapses to just ….
• 4<C-c><Tab>: shrink every column that has a width cookie, expand the others (Emacs org-table-shrink).
• 16<C-c><Tab>: expand every column.
• <C-c><Tab> with the cursor before the first | (press 0 first): asks Column ranges (e.g. 2-4 6-): and toggles those columns.
• #+STARTUP: shrink in a file (or startup_shrink_all_tables = true) shrinks the cookie columns of every table when the file opens.

Shrinking uses conceal and virtual text, so it sets 'conceallevel' to 2. The text in the file never changes (:set conceallevel=0 shows it). In Insert mode the table is shown in full, and it shrinks again when you leave Insert mode. 4<C-c>` shows the column of the cursor in full; <C-c>` on a shrunk field lets you read and edit the whole text.

Try: cursor on "Needs", <C-c><Tab>.

Expect: the second column now shows 12 characters and … on each line:

| Task                    | <12>        …| Owner    | Est |
|-------------------------+-------------…+----------+-----|
| Write the release notes | Needs the li…| Ada      | 3h  |
| Review pull requests    | Two big ones…| Linus    | 1h  |
| Plan the Q4 roadmap     | Talk to supp…| Margaret | 2h  |

Try: <C-c><Tab> again (still in that column).

Expect: the full column again.

Try: cursor on "Ada", <C-c><Tab>.

Expect: "Owner" has no cookie, so it collapses to …:

| Task                    | <12>                            |…| Est |
|-------------------------+---------------------------------+…+-----|
| Write the release notes | Needs the list of merged PRs    |…| 3h  |
| Review pull requests    | Two big ones from the core team |…| 1h  |
| Plan the Q4 roadmap     | Talk to support first           |…| 2h  |

Try: 16<C-c><Tab> (everything back), then 4<C-c><Tab>.

Expect: only the cookie column (2) is shrunk, as in the first result.

Try: 16<C-c><Tab>. Put the cursor on the | at the start of a row (0), press <C-c><Tab>, type 3-4 and <CR>.

Expect: columns 3 and 4 collapse to ….

Try: with a column shrunk, put the cursor in it and press i.

Expect: while you are in Insert mode the columns show in full; <Esc> shrinks them again. 16<C-c><Tab> to finish.

A row whose first field is / defines column groups for export: in the other fields of that row, < starts a group, > ends one, and <> makes a column a group of its own. Exporters draw vertical lines between groups (HTML uses <colgroup> elements, LaTeX | in the column spec, ASCII |). Inside the editor the row is an ordinary row; like a cookie row, it is not exported as data.

This makes three groups: N alone (the first column always starts a group), the powers N^2 to N^4, and the two roots.

Try: with the cursor in this section, press <prefix>e (the export menu), s (scope: this subtree), t (plain text), A (as an ASCII buffer). Find the table in the new buffer; :q closes it.

Expect: vertical bars only between the groups:

 N | N^2  N^3  N^4 | sqrt(n)  sqrt[4](N) |
---+---------------+---------------------+
 1 |   1    1    1 |       1           1 |
 2 |   4    8   16 |  1.4142      1.1892 |
 3 |   9   27   81 |  1.7321      1.3161 |

Fields can hold links, emphasis, code, timestamps, entities and non-ASCII text:

• Links are aligned by what you see: while link brackets are concealed (ui.conceal_links, the default), [[https://orgmode.org][Org]] counts as 3 characters wide. That is why the raw text of a row with links looks misaligned with :set conceallevel=0, and fine with the default.
• Emphasis markers (*bold*, /italic/, =code=) count as characters.
• Wide characters (CJK, emoji) count as two columns, accented letters as one.
• A literal | cannot be typed into a field (it would split it); write \vert{} instead, which exports as |.

Try: <C-c><C-c> in the table.

Expect: no change: the table is already aligned as org.nvim aligns it (the "link" rows look short in the file text, but line up on screen).

Try: cursor on "24" in the date, <S-Up>.

Expect: the date becomes <2026-12-25 Fri> (on a timestamp the <S-arrows> change the date; they do not swap fields). u to undo.

A table can be indented, for instance under a list item; every command keeps the indentation of its first line.

• Shopping for the party:

  Item	Qty
  chips	3
  salsa	2

• Guests:

  Name	Plus one
  Ada	yes
  Bob	no

Try: cursor on "Ada" in the second (unaligned) table, <C-c><C-c>.

Expect: aligned, still indented by two spaces:

- Guests:
  | Name | Plus one |
  | Ada  | yes      |
  | Bob  | no       |

Try: cursor on "salsa", <M-CR>, then i and type dip, <Esc>.

Expect: the new row is indented like the table:

- Shopping for the party:
  | Item  | Qty |
  |-------+-----|
  | chips |   3 |
  | salsa |   2 |
  | dip   |     |

Keywords directly above a table belong to it:

• #+NAME: name gives the table a name. Links [[name]] jump to it, formulas read it with remote(name, ...) and code blocks with :var x=name (see 16-spreadsheet.org and 17-babel.org).
• #+CAPTION: text is the caption shown by exporters ("Table 1: text").
• #+ATTR_HTML:, #+ATTR_LATEX:, #+ATTR_ODT: … pass options to one exporter, e.g. :border 2 :rules all :frame border for HTML, :environment longtable :align l|r for LaTeX.

Try: put the cursor on this link and press <CR>: 1

Expect: the cursor jumps to the #+NAME: budget line. <C-o> brings you back.

Try: cursor on the #+NAME: budget line, press <prefix>ls (store a link); come back here and insert it with <prefix>lL on the empty line below.

Expect: the link [[budget]] is inserted.

Try: with the cursor in this section, press <prefix>e s (this subtree) h H (HTML, as a buffer), and find the <table>.

Expect: the table is exported with the caption and the attributes (the id is generated from the table):

<table id="org362de52" border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="all" frame="border">
<caption class="t-above"><span class="table-number">Table 1:</span> Monthly budget</caption>

<colgroup>
<col  class="org-left" />

<col  class="org-right" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th scope="col" class="org-left">Item</th>
<th scope="col" class="org-right">Amount</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="org-left">Rent</td>
<td class="org-right">900</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="org-left">Groceries</td>
<td class="org-right">350</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

and <prefix>e s l L (LaTeX, as a buffer) shows the longtable environment with the column spec l|r (again with a generated label):

\begin{longtable}{l|r}
\caption{\label{tab:org362de52}Monthly budget}
\\
Item & Amount\\
\hline
\endfirsthead
\multicolumn{2}{l}{Continued from previous page} \\
\hline

Item & Amount \\

\hline
\endhead
\hline\multicolumn{2}{r}{Continued on next page} \\
\endfoot
\endlastfoot
\hline
Rent & 900\\
Groceries & 350\\
\end{longtable}

:Org table_export writes the table under the cursor to a file with a translator: orgtbl-to-tsv, orgtbl-to-csv, orgtbl-to-latex, orgtbl-to-html, orgtbl-to-texinfo, orgtbl-to-orgtbl, orgtbl-to-generic (plus parameters, e.g. orgtbl-to-latex :splice t). It asks for the file name, then for the format, suggesting the one matching the file extension (.csv → orgtbl-to-csv), else table_export_default_format (orgtbl-to-tsv). Hlines are dropped in CSV/TSV.

The file name and the format can instead come from the properties TABLE_EXPORT_FILE and TABLE_EXPORT_FORMAT of the entry (inherited from parents): then there is no question at all.

Try: cursor in the table, :Org table_export, type /tmp/org15-out.csv, <CR>, accept the suggested format orgtbl-to-csv with <CR>. Then :split /tmp/org15-out.csv.

Expect: the message "Export done: /tmp/org15-out.csv" and the file:

item,qty,price
apple,3,0.50
"melon, big",1,2.25

Emacs has a second table package, table.el, whose tables are grids of +, - and | in which a cell can span several rows or columns and hold several lines. Org files may contain them. org.nvim recognises them, leaves them alone for the normal table commands, and offers:

• <C-c>~ on an Org table: convert it to a table.el table (after a confirmation). Hlines are dropped and every row gets a border.
• <C-c>~ on a table.el table: convert it back to an Org table (the border lines are removed; spanned and multi-line cells are split, as in Emacs).
• <C-c>~ elsewhere: insert a new table.el table after asking for the number of columns and rows and the cell widths and heights.
• <C-c>' on a table.el table: edit it in a separate buffer where the grid is realigned when you leave Insert mode; <C-c><C-c> writes it back, <C-c><C-k> aborts.
• <Tab> and <C-c><C-c> on a table.el table only print a hint.

Try: cursor on the "0" cell, <C-c><C-c>.

Expect: the message "Use C-c ' to edit table.el tables".

Try: cursor on "Apple", <C-c>~, answer y.

Expect:

+--------+-----+
| Fruit  | Qty |
+--------+-----+
| Apple  |   3 |
+--------+-----+
| Banana |  12 |
+--------+-----+

Try: <C-c>~ again (on the new grid) and answer y.

Expect: an Org table again; the hline is gone:

| Fruit  | Qty |
| Apple  |   3 |
| Banana |  12 |

Try: u. On the empty line of the practice area below, press <C-c>~ and answer the prompts: 2 columns, 2 rows, width 6, height 1 (type each number and <CR>).

Expect:

+------+------+
|      |      |
+------+------+
|      |      |
+------+------+

Try: cursor in the new grid, <C-c>'; in the new buffer type some text into a cell (in Insert mode, without |), press <Esc> and then <C-c><C-c>.

Expect: the grid grew to fit the text and was written back to this file.

:Org orgtbl_mode turns on the table editor in a buffer of any filetype (Emacs orgtbl-mode), for instance in a Markdown or text file: on lines starting with |, <Tab>, <S-Tab>, <CR> (Insert mode), <S-CR>, <C-c><C-c>, <C-c>-, <C-c>^, <M-hjkl>, <M-HJKL> … work as in Org buffers; elsewhere the keys keep their normal meaning.

Try: :enew, :set filetype=markdown, :Org orgtbl_mode, then type i|a|b <Tab> 1 <Tab> 2 <Esc>.

Expect:

| a | b |
| 1 | 2 |

Radio tables (a table that is sent, translated to LaTeX or HTML, into another part of the file whenever it changes) are described in :h org-radio-tables.

Everything computed (#+TBLFM:, column and field formulas, vsum, dates arithmetic, the formula editor <prefix>', recalculation with <prefix>Tf, the # / * recalculation marks with <prefix>T#, plots) is in 16-spreadsheet.org.

• :h org-tables — the table keys and commands
• :h org-table-shrink — shrinking columns
• :h org-table-follow-field — follow-field and header-line modes
• :h org-table-translators — the orgtbl-to-* translators used by :Org table_export
• :h orgtbl-mode — tables in other filetypes, radio tables
• :h org-table.el — table.el tables
• :h org-keymaps and :h org-emacs-keys — every key
• :h org-differences — where org.nvim differs from Emacs