Seating Plan – Tables & Room

The seating plan lets you recreate your venue: tables, stage, bar, dance floor – and you distribute your guests across them. This page covers the room. Seating the guests and getting the plan onto paper have pages of their own.

Guest list first, then seats

The seating plan works with the people from your guest list – it has no guest database of its own. So build that first; the Open guest list button takes you over at any time, and Open seating plan brings you back.

Guest list with the active switch, import and export, the columns button and add guest highlighted — The guest list is the base – every name here can later be dragged onto a seat: ① the **Active** switch, ② **Import** and **Export** with the tally, ③ **Columns**, ④ **Add guest**.

The editor

Top of the seating plan editor with tabs, export button, plan picker and view switch highlighted — The top of the editor: ① the tabs **Content**, **Display** and **QR code**, ② **Export & print**, ③ the plan picker with **Add seating plan**, ④ the **Illustrated** / **Simple mode** switch and its style. The floor plan with its toolbar and the guest panel starts right below.

You’ll find it under Tools → Seating Plan in the Content tab. The layout is always the same:

The canvas in the middle is your room. Drag elements by their handle; a click selects them.
The side panel on the right shows the settings of the selected element – with nothing selected it shows your guest list.
The status line above the plan reports how many guests are seated and how many seats exist in total.
The toolbar at the top right carries preview, undo, keyboard shortcuts, the style brush, multi-select, the layout lock and Add element.

Multiple plans

You can create up to 10 seating plans – one for dinner and one for the party afterwards, for example. In the plan bar you create them with Add seating plan, rename them with Rename seating plan or remove them with Delete seating plan.

Visibility & time slot

Every plan has its own guest-facing settings under Visibility & time slot:

Visible to guests – switched off, the plan carries the badge Hidden from guests and only admins see it. Handy for drafts.
Time slot (optional) – with From and Until you set the period in which guests see this plan first. They can still switch at any time, and the plan is never hidden by this. The times apply to the event day in local time; a slot across midnight – 22:00 to 02:00, say – works fine.
Take from a schedule item – if you’ve filled in the timeline tool, this picker copies a schedule item’s start and duration in as the time slot. Editing a time by hand afterwards detaches the link again.

Apply closes the dialog.

Creating tables

Toolbar of the seating editor with the Add element button highlighted in red — Everything new on the plan comes out of this single button: **Add element** on the right of the toolbar – tables just as much as stage, bar or text field.

Add element dialog with the table form and the room objects — One dialog for both: the new table on top, the catalogue of floor objects below.

Add element → Table creates a table. Clicking it opens Edit table in the panel:

Table name – anything you like, such as “Table 1” or “Family table”.
Seats – how many people sit there. The More seats and Fewer seats buttons step the number.
Shape – Round, Rectangular, Square, Oval or Half-round.
Color – the table colour in simple mode.

Sizes in centimetres

All sizes are real centimetres, so the plan matches the venue. Which fields appear depends on the shape: Width (cm) and Height (cm) for rectangular and oval tables, Diameter (cm) for round ones, Side length (cm) for square ones.

Automatic size resets the measurements – the table then follows the number of seats automatically again. Seat spacing controls how closely the settings sit together.

Which sides carry seats

Under Seats on these sides you switch individual edges off – for a table against a wall, for instance. Rectangular and square tables offer their top, right, bottom and left edge; round and oval tables read the same entries as quarter arcs. A half-round table offers its arc and its flat side, and has only the arc enabled by default.

Quick start: several tables at once

To get going there is Quick start: create tables (inside the Add element dialog the entry is called Several tables at once). You enter Expected guests and Seats per table, Photogala works out the Number of tables and shows you the total; Shape decides whether the tables come out round or rectangular. Create tables drops them onto the canvas neatly arranged – from there you nudge them into place.

You only see the Quick start: create tables button on the canvas itself while the plan is still empty. Once a single table is there, the way in is Add element.

Add element dialog with the entry Several tables at once highlighted in red — Inside the **Add element** dialog the quick start is called **Several tables at once** – in the **Tables** section, right below **Add table**.

Quick start dialog with the fields Expected guests, Seats per table and Number of tables — The quick start does the maths: you enter **Expected guests** and **Seats per table**, the **Number of tables** follows. The line above the button names both together – here “6 tables with 48 seats in total”.

Floor objects

Everything that isn’t a table comes from the Floor objects in Add element. They are grouped into four categories:

Stage & tech – stage, DJ booth, speaker, light, piano, fireworks, screen.
Food & drinks – bar, buffet, cake table, gift table, candy bar.
Room & fixtures – text field, dance floor, entrance, WC, cloakroom, photo booth, guest book, wall, column, lounge, kids corner.
Decoration & outdoor – tree, plant, arch, centerpiece, flowers, place setting, plate, vase, bottles, lantern and Custom for anything that fits no drawer.

A selected object is edited in the panel under Edit object: Label is the text shown, Show object label turns it on or off, Color sets the tone in simple mode.

Text fields

The Text field object is free text on the plan – for notes like “Smoking area” or a headline. Under Edit text you set:

Text – the content.
Font – Default, Serif, Display, Script or Mono.
Font size plus Bold, Italic and Underlined.
Alignment – Left, Center or Right.
Text color, Background (None or Chip) and Border. Custom lets you pick any colour value.

Guest panel next to the floor plan with search, progress and the Auto-seat and seating rules buttons — The guest panel sits next to the plan — that is where you drag names onto the chairs.

Editing elements

Tables and objects can be edited in several ways – pick whichever suits you.

Move – drag by the handle.
Resize – drag the corner grip.
Rotate – drag the rotation grip. The Angle is also a number in the panel; hold Shift while dragging and the rotation snaps to 15-degree steps.
Flip – Flip horizontally and Flip vertically in the context menu, for floor objects.
Duplicate – Duplicate drops a copy alongside.
Group – select several elements and choose Group: they are then selected and moved together. Ungroup releases them again.
Layer – Bring to front, Bring forward, Send backward, Send to back control what sits on top of what.
Lock – a locked element carries Locked and can no longer be moved by accident.
Transfer style – the brush in the toolbar copies the selected element’s style; you then tap further elements to apply it. Esc ends the brush.

Several elements at once

Shift + click or Ctrl + click adds elements to the selection; the toolbar also has a toggle after which a plain tap already adds to the selection – the more comfortable route on a phone. The panel then shows how many elements are selected and offers the shared actions.

On the desktop you open it with a right-click, on a phone by pressing and holding. Depending on the target it contains duplicate, flip, layers and delete; on empty canvas it offers Insert table here and Insert element, so the new element lands exactly at that spot.

Illustration style dialog with the Style tab and the style cards — How the finished plan looks is not set in the editor but in the “Illustration style” dialog.

Alignment helpers

Grid

The grid button at the bottom right of the plan toggles the Grid – as does the G key. You pick the Grid spacing next to it: 10 cm, 25 cm, 50 cm or 100 cm; 50 cm is preset. Your browser remembers the choice. The spacing field only appears once the grid is switched on – with the grid off there is just the button.

Hold Alt while dragging and Photogala ignores the grid and places freely.

Bar at the bottom right of the plan with the grid button (1) and the grid spacing picker (2) highlighted in red — Both sit in the same bar at the bottom right: 1 toggles the grid – same effect as the G key, and the button stays highlighted afterwards. 2 is the spacing, here 50 cm.

Measuring tape

You reach the Measuring tape through Add element – inside the dialog it sits right at the top under the heading Tools. It measures distances: you drag a line across the plan and get the length in centimetres. Enter length lets you type a value by hand, and the measurement line and its points can be moved afterwards. Stop measuring or Esc switches back.

Zoom

Zoom in, Zoom out and the percentage sit at the bottom right. Clicking the value is Reset zoom. On a phone you pinch with two fingers.

Lock layout

Lock layout freezes every position. That helps once the room is settled and you’re only distributing guests – an accidental drag then moves no table. Unlock layout releases it again.

A hall for 62 guests — the shell is up in ten minutes.

Add element → Several tables at once: Expected guests 62, Seats per table 8. Photogala works out the Number of tables and drops them onto the canvas neatly arranged — you only nudge them into place.
One of them becomes the top table: click it, change the Table name to “Top table” in the Edit table panel, go down to 2 seats with Fewer seats and set the Shape to Round. A round table with two seats seats the couple side by side on the lower arc all by itself.
One table stands against the wall: under Seats on these sides switch the Top edge off so nobody sits there.
From Add element you add the stage, DJ booth, bar and dance floor out of the Floor objects. The Grid helps you align them (key G, preset 50 cm); for the bar between two grid points, hold Alt while dragging and place it freely.
Once the room is settled, switch Lock layout on. From then on no accidental drag moves a table while you distribute the guests.

A quick measurement: whether people can still squeeze between two rows of tables is what the measuring tape in the Tools tells you — in real centimetres. While it is running, elements deliberately cannot be moved; Esc ends it.

Undo and keyboard shortcuts

Undo and Redo sit as a pair of arrows in the toolbar. The keyboard button next to them opens Keyboard shortcuts:

Edit

Ctrl + Z – Undo
Ctrl + Y or Ctrl + Shift + Z – Redo

Selection

Click – Select element
Shift + click or Ctrl + click – Add to selection
Esc – Clear selection / stop measuring

View

Ctrl + + and Ctrl + − – Zoom in / out
Ctrl + 0 – Reset zoom to 100 %
G – Show/hide grid
Alt – Place freely while dragging
? – Open this reference

On a Mac it is ⌘ instead of Ctrl throughout.

Keyboard shortcuts dialog with the groups Editing, Selection and View — You always have the same list at hand inside the editor – the ? key opens this dialog.

On a phone

On a phone the side panel isn’t a column beside the plan but a bottom sheet: it slides up as soon as you select an element. You can pull it up by the handle at the top when a panel is longer than its resting height – and pull it down again to dismiss it. That way the plan stays visible while you change settings.

The hint above the plan is shorter on a phone and describes the touch gestures: drag by the handle, tap to select, hold for the menu, pinch with two fingers to zoom.

Troubleshooting

I can’t move an element. Check three things: is Lock layout active? Is the measuring tape running? Are you in the Guest view preview? In all three cases dragging is blocked on purpose. Individually locked elements are marked Locked.

My table jumps while dragging. The grid is active. Turn it off with G, pick a finer Grid spacing, or hold Alt while dragging.

My changes are gone after a reload. Content is not saved automatically. Use the Save button before you leave the page.

Saving shows a conflict message. Somebody else saved in the meantime. Your input is kept – review it and save again.

I can’t add another plan, table or object. There are upper limits: 10 seating plans, 100 tables and 300 floor objects per event. A message names the limit you reached.

Seating plan: Seating guests · Illustrated view, export & print
For Guests: Find your seat – what your guests see.
For Hosts: Guest List · Timeline · RSVP · Tools – Overview