Froala V5 Tables Are Worth the Upgrade from V3

Froala V5 makes tables faster to build, easier to format, and consistent by default. Multi-cell selection, proportional resizing, copy-paste cells, and automatic style defaults mean you spend minutes on tables instead of hours. The upgrade takes about 15 minutes, and your existing V3 tables render exactly as they did before.

The Takeaway

Froala V5 gives you:

• Multi-cell formatting — Style entire rows or columns at once instead of clicking each cell.
• Predictable resizing — Proportional resize keeps layouts balanced. Layouts stay balanced automatically.
• Copy-paste cells — Move formatted cells around without re-entry.
• Automatic defaults — Every new table arrives pre-formatted. Brand consistency, built in.

Together they cut table work from hours per month to minutes. If you build more than a handful of tables a month, the upgrade pays for itself in the first week.

The Froala V3 Tables

Froala V3 tables are powerful, but they’re friction-filled:

• Formatting is slow: Want to style multiple cells? Click each one. Change the background color. Do it again. Again.

• Resizing is unpredictable: Drag a border and watch your layout shift. No proportional resize. No safety net.

• Every table starts from zero: No defaults. No presets. Every new table is manual labor.

Multiply that across dozens of articles a month, and you’re losing hours to table busy work.

Froala V5 Tables: Four Wins That Matter

1. Selection & Formatting (Stop Clicking Each Cell)

In V5, you can select multiple cells and format them all at once. Want to change the background color of an entire row? Select it. Done. Format entire rows or columns at once.

Two new popups make this even faster:

• Cell Properties popup: Set background color, width, height, and padding in one place— All settings in one popup.

• Table Properties popup: Adjust table background, width, height, alignment, border, and style without leaving the dialog.

Real impact: A table that took 15 minutes to format in V3 takes 3 minutes in V5.

2. Resizing & Layout Control

V5 gives you four resizing options—pick what fits your workflow:

• Horizontal and vertical resizing: Drag table borders in any direction.

• Proportional resize: Change one cell and others adjust automatically. Layouts stay proportional automatically.
  

• Configurable trigger distance: Set how close to the border you need to be to grab the resizer (default: 5 pixels). Easier on touch devices and shaky hands.

• Minimum size limits: Define the smallest a cell can be. Prevents accidental collapse.

You control it. The table doesn’t control you.

3. Workflow Speed (Less Repetition, More Done)

Three features that cut friction:

• Drag and drop tables: Reorder tables by dragging them. No cut-paste. No fumbling.

• Copy-paste cells: Copy a cell and paste it elsewhere—content, formatting, everything. No re-entry.

• Default table styles: Set your defaults once (alignment, height, background color, border color, width, border style)—every new table inherits them automatically.

Real impact: You set defaults once. Then you create 50 tables. All 50 look consistent without thinking about it.

4. Customization and Brand Defaults

Define defaults for every table you create:

• Default alignment (left, center, right)

• Default height and width

• Default background color

• Default border color, width, and style

Insert a table, and it arrives pre-formatted. No guessing. No brand drift. Consistency from the first cell.

How to Upgrade (It’s Fast)

After you get your V5 key free:

Step 1: Back up your existing content.

Step 2: Install V5.

Step 3: Open a few existing documents. Your tables render the same. Backward compatible, no surprises.

Step 4: Try the new features on a new table. Drag to resize. Multi-select cells. Use the popups.

Step 5: Update your table templates to use the new defaults. One-time task, pays dividends forever.

Expected Total time: less than 15 minutes.

How to Configure V5 Tables

All these features are on by default, but you can customize them to match your workflow. Here’s what each config option does:

Enable Table Selection

Config: enableTableSelection: true

Click a table, and the whole thing highlights so you can delete or move it. This is the foundation for drag-and-drop.

Resizing Options

Config: tableResizer: true (default)

Enables cell resizing. Set it to false if you want fixed-width tables only.

Horizontal and Vertical:

If you enabled resizing tables, you can configure whether to allow resizing in both directions or lock it to horizontal or vertical only.

• tableHorizontalResizer: true — Drag left/right to adjust column width.

• tableVerticalResizer: true — Drag up/down to adjust row height.

Proportional Resize:

• proportionalTableResize: true — When you resize one cell, others adjust proportionally to keep the table balanced.

Fine-tune the Resizer:

• tableResizerOffset: 5 (default in pixels) — How close to the cell border you need to be to grab the resize handle. Lower values = easier to grab, but might accidentally trigger. Higher values = more precise but harder on touch devices. Start with 5, adjust if your users struggle.

• tableResizingLimit: 20 (default in pixels) — Minimum cell width. Prevents cells from collapsing into nothing. If your content needs more breathing room, increase this to 30 or 40.

Multi-cell Formatting

Select multiple cells, right-click (or use the toolbar), and open the Cell Properties popup to format them all at once:

• Background color

• Width and height

• Padding

Copy-Paste Cells

Select a cell, copy it (Ctrl+C / Cmd+C), then paste it elsewhere. Content and formatting come along.

Set Table Defaults (The Real Time-Saver)

Define what every new table looks like, automatically. Add these to your Froala config:

tableDefaultAlign: 'center', // 'left', 'center', 'right'

tableDefaultHeight: '50px', // or any CSS value

tableDefaultBGColor: '#ffffff', // background color

tableDefaultBorderColor: '#cccccc', // border color

tableDefaultBorderWidth: '1px', // border thickness

tableDefaultBorderStyle: 'solid' // 'solid', 'dashed', 'dotted', etc.

Now every table a user creates arrives pre-formatted. No more blank slate. No more guessing about brand consistency.

Example Configuration

Here’s a realistic example:

new FroalaEditor('#editor', {
  enableTableSelection: true,
  tableResizer: true,
  tableHorizontalResizer: true,
  tableVerticalResizer: true,
  proportionalTableResize: true,
  tableResizerOffset: 5,
  tableResizingLimit: 20,
  tableDefaultAlign: 'left',
  tableDefaultHeight: '40px',
  tableDefaultBGColor: '#ffffff',
  tableDefaultBorderColor: '#333333',
  tableDefaultBorderWidth: '1px',
  tableDefaultBorderStyle: 'solid'
});

Deploy this once, and all your editors benefit automatically. No training needed beyond “tables now look consistent.”

What You Gain

• Time: Fewer clicks, fewer repetitions, faster formatting.

• Control: Predictable resizing, proportional layouts, no surprises.

• Consistency: Defaults mean every table looks right without thinking.

• Sanity: Copy-paste cells instead of retyping. Drag tables instead of fumbling with cut-paste.

Ready?

The upgrade takes less than 15 minutes. Your existing tables render exactly as they did in V3—no conversion needed. You can start using new features on your next table.

There’s no reason to wait.

Get your V5 key free, follow the five steps above and get your users back to writing.