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oh-daoh-da/dataink/skills/table-design/SKILL.md

table-design

Skill0 starsChanged 3 months agoMITView on GitHub

Designs clear, readable data tables — structure, alignment, number formatting, grouping, and summary rows. Use when presenting exact values, building reference or lookup tables, formatting tabular reports, or when a chart is the wrong medium.

1 other project uses a version of this.

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  • Other versions1 project uses a version of this.

    Word for word · 0

    None found.

    Edited · 0

    None found.

    Wrote their own version · 1

    1. 1398281322-a11y/java-backend-guardrails★ 2same name

    How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.

  • In this repository5 other files it gives its agents.

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

9 rules. About 0 are common, 8 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.

  • ≈0

    Common · estimate

    Many files like this have a rule of this kind.

  • ≈8

    Distinctive · estimate

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 1

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Very specific:

    All shared rules in ../../assets/core-standards.md apply (contrast, no color-only encoding, left-justified text, integrity).

    line 15
  2. Distinctive:

    Never center-align numbers or their headers.

    line 17
  3. Distinctive:

    Avoid tables in live presentations — they pull audiences into reading mode.

    line 18
  4. Distinctive:

    Verify a table is right: individual values, precise lookup, mixed units, or audit/appendix detail.

    line 24
  5. Distinctive:

    Put the items being compared in rows, the measures in columns (scanning down a column compares values fastest).

    line 27
  6. Distinctive:

    Put units, currency symbols, and % in the column header, not in every cell.

    line 34
  7. Distinctive:

    Use tabular (fixed-width) figures so digits align vertically.

    line 35
  8. Distinctive:

    Verify fill/text contrast:

    line 48
  9. Distinctive:

    Ensure highlight fills are not the only encoding (pair with the value itself — always true in tables — but check conditional icons/colors …

    line 55

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Table Design

The user's request: "$ARGUMENTS"

Tables communicate through reading, not perception: use them when the audience needs to look up individual values, compare precise numbers, or see multiple units of measure side by side. If the message is a pattern, trend, or comparison, switch to the data-visualization skill.

Critical Constraints

All shared rules in ../../assets/core-standards.md apply (contrast, no color-only encoding, left-justified text, integrity). Table-specific additions:

  • The data must dominate — structure (rules, fills, borders) stays in the background.
  • Never center-align numbers or their headers.
  • Avoid tables in live presentations — they pull audiences into reading mode.
  • RTL documents (Hebrew/Arabic): text columns right-align (the text rule flips); numbers keep LTR digits and stay right-aligned. For HTML in an RTL document, set dir="rtl" on the table so the lookup column sits on the right.

Instructions

Step 1: Confirm the Medium

Verify a table is right: individual values, precise lookup, mixed units, or audit/appendix detail. Otherwise route to data-visualization.

Step 2: Structure Rows and Columns

  • Put the items being compared in rows, the measures in columns (scanning down a column compares values fastest).
  • Sort rows by a meaningful order — value descending, natural sequence, or the reader's lookup key. Alphabetical only when readers look up by name.
  • Group related columns under spanner headers; group related rows with white space, not boxes.

Step 3: Format Numbers

  • Consistent precision per column; round to the precision the decision needs (2–3 significant digits usually) — extra decimals are noise.
  • Thousands separators; align on the decimal point.
  • Put units, currency symbols, and % in the column header, not in every cell.
  • Use tabular (fixed-width) figures so digits align vertically.

Step 4: Align

  • Right-align numbers and their headers. Left-align text and its headers. Never center either.
  • Dates: align consistently (right or left) with a fixed format.

Step 5: Delineate Lightly

  • White space first; light rules (thin, light grey) only when spacing can't separate groups; full grids and heavy borders never.
  • Zebra striping only for wide tables where the eye loses the row; keep the fill barely visible.
  • Bold summary rows (totals, averages) and separate them with a single light rule.

Step 6: Highlight (optional)

  • To add at-a-glance magnitude without losing precision, overlay a heatmap fill or embed bars/sparklines — follow the branding workflow and 10% rule in ../../assets/core-standards.md.
  • Verify fill/text contrast:
python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/check_contrast.py" '#TEXT' '#FILL'

Step 7: Accessibility and Output

  • HTML output: real <th> header cells with scope, a <caption>, no layout-only tables.
  • Ensure highlight fills are not the only encoding (pair with the value itself — always true in tables — but check conditional icons/colors carry labels).
  • Produce the table in the user's preferred format (HTML, markdown, spreadsheet, LaTeX).

Troubleshooting

"Make the table pop with colors and borders": structure competing with data slows lookup. Offer bold summary rows, a single accent for the key column, and white-space grouping instead.

Too many columns to scan: split into multiple tables by theme, or move secondary measures to an appendix table.

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