emacs: table editing, rectangle editing, making simple drawings, picture more, artist mode

Emacs has “info mode” documentation on “Picture Mode“.

“CUA Bindings” (cf. “info mode” entry by this name) come with enhanced rectangle support.

The O’Reilly book Learning GNU Emacs has a chapter (7) on Simple Text Edition and Specialized Editing with sections Rectangle Editing (subsection on CUA Rectangle Editing) and Making Simple Drawings (on Picture Mode and Artist Mode). Occasionally I actually use Picture Mode for drawing tables.

You will find info mode documentation on table editing in section Text > Text Base Tables. I also like that very much.