Project Title

Joplin Rich Text Editor Tables Keyboard Shortcuts Plugin (RTET)

Author

sizer99 at sizer99 dot com

Description / Overview

I like markdown, but I use tables in the Joplin Rich Text Editor a lot because they do a lot of things that the markdown tables don't, like easier navigation, properly aligning things with Japanese characters, etc., easily selecting the contents of a whole cell, etc.

Unfortunately, there are very few key shortcuts for common things like insert row, swap rows, delete row, etc. and all the cool plugins only work on Markdown, so I have to mouse to the table toolbar every time, which really slows things down. This adds a dozen commands to your Options -> Keyboard Shortcuts that you can set to your own liking.

Once you realize you can treat a Table as a mini spreadsheet (really a tiny database) there are a ton of things you can use them for.

Usage

Once you've installed the plugin, you should get a Tools -> Rich Text Editor Table submenu with a dozen things you might want to do with a table. It is not intended you use them from this menu - that would just be slower than using the table toolbar! But by adding them to a menu and giving them ridiculous shortcuts like Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F1, Joplin will add them to Options -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

There's no point to this plugin if you don't assign the ones you use a lot to your own keyboard shortcuts. Once you're in the Keyboard Shortcuts list type 'RTET' into the filter box at the top to see them all. You can clear the ones you don't care about if you want.

Commands

The commands can be grouped into Table, Row, Column, and Cell.

Most of them do what you'd expect from the name, I'll add comments where there are any other gotchas.

Table Name | Comments --- | --- Add 2x2 Table | Adds a blank 2x2 Table inline. Then you can add Rows and Cols.

Row Name | Comments --- | --- Insert Table Row Above | Blank row Insert Table Row Below | Blank row Cut Current Table Row | Cuts to the Rich Text Editor's clipboard, which is not shared with Joplin's clipboard. Also works as Delete! Paste Cut Table Row Above This Row | Must be one cut with 'Cut Current Table Row' Swap Table Row Below | Quickly swap two rows

Column Name | Comments --- | --- Insert Table Column Left | Blank column Insert Table Column Right | Blank column Cut Current Table Column | | Cuts to the Rich Text Editor's clipboard, which is not shared with Joplin's clipboard. Also works as Delete! Paste Cut Table Column Left of This Column | Must be one cut with 'Cut Current Table Column' Swap Table Column Right | Quickly swap two columns

Cell

You may think this is overkill, but a lot of my work with Tables is Japanese translation, and being able to copy / paste a cell with a single keystroke is a huge time-saver. Once you realize you can treat a Table as a mini spreadsheet (really a tiny database) there are a ton of things you can use them for. So here's the whole cut/copy/paste trinity!

Name | Comments --- | --- Select Current Table Cell | Select the whole cell but don't do anything else Select Current Table Cell & Copy Text | Copy the cell text to system clipboard Select Current Table Cell & Cut Text | Cut the cell text to system clipboard Select Current Table Cell & Paste Text | Replace the cell text with system clipboard text

Limitations

Joplin keeps the Rich Text Editor (tinyMCE) at arms length with lots of barbed wire and a bleak no-mans' land between them. So what we can do to the Rich Text Editor Tables is limited to what's in this: https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/latest/editor-command-identifiers/#core-table-commands You can see I've made most of this available, and did the Cell Select stuff with some hax. So most other features you might want (like why is there no 'Swap With Row Above'?) are because of this. I can't just move the cursor around tinyMCE arbitrarily!

License

MIT @ Ron Dippold 2026

Versions

2026 Jun 28 - 1.0.0 - First version, make a codeberg repository, attempt to publish.

TODO

• Nothing yet