Can table cell size be locked in InDesign?

Question

I want to keep the cell size locked in my indesign table so I don't accidentally select the lines when trying to select an individual cell. The cells are so small that I have to zoom in very tight for the mouse courser to change to the type tool to select the cell for filling.

The reason why I need such small cells is that they represent the size of seed beads. I am filling each cell with color to make a bead loom pattern. This is the only program I found to be able to put color in a "cell" over top of a photograph. The scale is important to be able to create the pattern and not have the final image skewed.

Answer 1

No, you cannot just lock cell edges, and keep the cell content editable.

But here's a trick for you:

• double click into a cell to change to Type Tool in that cell
• now, the important part: press ESC and this keeps you in that cell, but leaves the Type Tool and selects the cell itself, like the cell container
• now, with the actual cell selected, you can hit the arrow keys and move around in the table, from cell to cell like in a video game, also while doing this quick cell selection, use the swatches panel to quick apply color for each cell
• you can also copy & paste an entire cell selected in this way, and it will copy paste into another location the entire cell, including fill color, strokes and any text content inside the cell