How to edit a table (created by Lotus Notes) in the email reply (in Gmail)?

Question

I've received an email with an embedded table. I want to put some marks inside that table (i.e., edit the content of the table) and send it back.

Unfortunately, the Gmail interface doesn't seem to have table editing capabilities: after I hit reply, I see the table in the quoted text of the original message, but is not editable...

If this is not possible in Gmail, how do I export the HTML source of this messsage and edit in another installed word processor?

Answer 1

I can confirm that Gmail does allow you to send tables, but provide very limited editing support.

What I would do is to copy the whole e-mail into an online HTML editor like TinyMCE and do the editing there. You can also copy it a local tool that supports HTML editing, like Word or Dreamweaver.

Answer 2

Probably, the way to go would be

• either to use the built-in facilities for editing tables in the Gmail interface (which are actually present, according to the answer by billc.cn),
• or try to copy the table by selectiing and pasting it into another editor (as suggested by the answer by billc.cn),
• or press button "show original" and copy the (unfortunately, escaped/encoded) HTML source,
• or [press button "create a document" (enabled in "Google Labs" parameters)] and work with that document in Google Docs (or export it)](https://webapps.stackexchange.com/q/1642/15124),
• or acccess the mailbox via IMAP to save the HTML source of the message (which is the sanest way, but requires more set-up),

unless it were an image in my case (created by that crazy Lotus Notes), no real data -- as SJuan76 has correctly guessed! The source shown by "Show original" in GMail reads:

<FONT face=3D"Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size=
=3D2><div><br></div><font color=3D"#990099">----- =F0=C5=D2=C5=D3=CC=C1=CE=
=CF =CF=D4 A&amp;B Company/ab-com =CB 11.24.2011 09:24 PM -----<br><br><=
/font><blockquote style=3D"padding-right:0px;padding-left:5px;margin-left:5=
px;border-left:#000000 2px solid;margin-right:0px">=EB=CF=CD=D5: A&amp;B Co=
mpany &lt;[email protected]&gt;<br>=EF=D4: A&amp;B Company/ab-com<br>=
=E4=C1=D4=C1: 11.24.2011 02:08 PM<br>=F4=C5=CD=C1: =D3=D0=C9=D3=CF=CB =C4=
=CC=D1 =D0=CF=DA=C4=D2=C1=D7=CC=C5=CE=C9=CA. =DE=C1=D3=D4=D81 (=C1-=DA)<br>=
<br><img src=3D"cid:=5F1=5F0652CFAC0652CE5C003C3D3444257952" >=0D=0D</block=
quote><br></FONT>

(Note the IMG tag! :-( )

In this case, ask the sender to send you the table in the source formal (perhaps, .xls), if he wants you to send an edited version back.