Stuck in IDCS4 Table H*ll--Please Help

Question

I'm working on updating a parts catalog for my company (800+ pages) and it's my first big project using IDCS4. We've separated each section into an individual document (most between 50-80 pages, but a couple of the sections are 100+ pages).
Due to the nature of the project, I've attempted to make my documents as flexible as possible.  Over the next few years we will be inserting new information at different places in the catalog, as we begin to carry new items.  Because of this possibilty, the current information for each section is placed in an single table that overflows from the first page through the last page of that document.
The problem I keep running into, is that the table rows for different parts of the same document have to be formatted differently to achieve a consistent appearance. There are a few parts that have additional information that requires splitting and/or merging table cells.
Here are a few issues I've come across:
* When I try to Shift + drag a cell border, ID will not allow me to drag it past the threshhold of another cell in a higher or lower row.  For example, I have a 3 inch cell in Row 2 of my document that begins at 0" and ends at 3".  Further down at row 7, I have divided the 3" row vertically.  The right half of the divided cell has been merged to the adjacent cell (to the right).  When I try to drag the left wall of this cell toward the left, ID won't let me drag it past the 3" mark on the ruler (in fact, it stops about 1/16" short).  Is there a way to override this and freely drag the cell wall to whatever size I want it to be?
* My other issue is attempting to paste rows from one ID document to another.  Occasionally, ID allows me to do it, but it plays heck with my formatting when it does.  Most times, even when the rows seem to be right at or very close to the same dimensions, the Paste function is not available after I Cut or Copy the rows from the older document.
Can anyone provide advice/solutions or even explain to me that I'm going about this all wrong, or have I come across an inherent weakness of InDesign's capabilities.  I understand that an application that does every single thing you'll ever want or need isn't out there, but it seems like it's those things I want or need most that ID refuses to do.
Thanks in advance!
RW

Answer 1

Thanks for all of your help.  I checked out catalog plugins and downloaded a couple of the trial versions.  They seem to be a great tool and something I'll probably pursue in the future.  Unfortunately, their parameters weren't compatible with the amount of work I've already put into this project and in the interest of time-saving, I'm going to pursue another path for this version of the catalog so I can take my time working on the prep it would take make the most of the catalog plugins.
I did some homework on the linked text frames solution and have proceeded down that path.  Due to some of the formatting (some of the pages were a lot more difficult than the sample I uploaded), I'm still using tables to preserve a consistent look, but I've broken down each product section into a separate table (of no more than 20-30 product listings per table).  I don't know why that didn't occur to me earlier, I guess I was in the dark about the reflow feature that keeps objects flowing consecutively.
One other problem I'm having that I haven't found a suitable answer to:  When pasting rows from one table to another, most help databases I've seen praise the flexibility of InDesign to copy from one table and *as long as there are enough rows to add the new info*, pasting from one table to another is a snap.  However, I've found limited success with this feature.  I'm not sure if it has to do with my tables, some of which became very complex (through splitting and merging cells to preserve a consistent appearance throughout a section), but InDesign will allow me to cut rows from one table and insert them as a new table into a text frame; however, when I try to copy more rows from the first table (formatted the same as the first rows that I cut), the Paste feature is inactive.  Other than the first series of rows being cut from one table and pasted as a new table, their is no difference between them and the next section of rows I'm attempting to add to the end of the table.
Any thoughts on the seeming inconsistency?
RW