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Any trick to read large Wikipedia "Comparison of..." tables? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I really like comparison tables on wikipedia but find them hard to navigate.

For example: Comparison of web browsers > General Information

Say I want a web browser for Linux which has been recently updated. I can sort by the "Platform" column, or by "Latest release: Date" but not both.

Sometimes tables can be very wide and/or very tall. Once you get to scrolling it is impossible to see either the row or column headings. So then you can't tell where you even are in the table. Example: Table of AMD processors Also they can have complex structures with merged headings and content.

Ideally I would like to apply some basic spreadsheet-type operations like hiding rows/columns, filtering, sorting by multiple columns etc. Even if there was a way to easily get the table into an actual spreadsheet that would be helpful. I tried some extensions that export tables to other formats but nothing worked without a lot of cleanup.

Is there some kind of trick or tool or extension that makes these ginormous tables useful? I can't tell how people even add information to these things, they are so large.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Freezing top row would be my #1 pick, followed by the ability to use the full width of the browser window for the table (rather than forcing horizontal scroll at a fixed table width), and the ability to hide columns.

Ideally without using an external interface.... But I think the exporting to spreadsheet trick will absolutely be handy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Freezing the top row (when wanted by the user) would be an actual legitimate use of that annoying thing where websites have their navigation bar persistently at the top of the window.