Totara Learn Open Discussions

Alternatives to tables

 
Julian Kleinbussink
Alternatives to tables
de Julian Kleinbussink - Wednesday, 13 de August de 2025, 16:31
Grupo Learn Site Administrator

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone has alternative options to using HTML tables in Totara, particularly for activities where learners enter responses directly into the table?

Tables are used by our ID team because they look nice but they are causing some struggles:

  • They display poorly on mobile devices.

  • Lots of scrolling required because the tables often don't fit within the response text box.

  • Formatting tables is time consuming.

  • Usability is far from optimal for our learners

  • When using Print-to-PDF the content gets partially obscured.

  • Once responses are entered, the table layout often looks worse than the empty version.

  • We're looking at using Voice-to-Text for learners that struggle with writing and using tables would be hard with this format.


We are on Totara v18 if that helps.

Cheers,
Julian

Craig Eves
Re: Alternatives to tables
de Craig Eves (Totara Support) - Tuesday, 19 de August de 2025, 13:29
 

Hi Julian

I don't think Totara has any special tools to format web content without table elements - as far I understand you can use CSS for this with flexbox . I have asked a web designer for more input

regards

Dave Wallace
Re: Alternatives to tables
de Dave Wallace - Tuesday, 19 de August de 2025, 15:49
Grupo Totara

Kia ora Julian,

For fields in Totara that have the Weka Editor enabled, there's a "layout" option, but it is currently very limited, doesn't have table-like semantic information for assistive technology, and may not meet your use case - but is an option to play around with.

For example:

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

It would be great if you're able to add this request for better controls for content formatting as a Canny request, and if you can note that you have accessibility requirements as well as the general functionality requirement, that will help us to build a case to make richer improvements.

Cheers, Dave