how to insert "|" in org-mode table

Question

I have some trouble in using org-mode. I want create a table in org-mode like this:

| operator | use         |
|----------+-------------|
|   |      | expr | expr |

but when I press TAB, the table changed like this:

| operator | use |      |      |
|----------+-----+------+------|
|          |     | expr | expr |.

How to avoid it?

Answer 1

To insert a vertical bar into a table field, use \vert or, inside a word abc\vert{}def.

Source: Org-mode manual: The built-in table editor.

If \vert is not automatically converted to |, call org-toggle-pretty-entities, per:

C-c C-x \

Toggle display of entities as UTF-8 characters. This does not change the buffer content which remains plain ASCII, but it overlays the UTF-8 character for display purposes only.

Source: Org-mode manual: Special symbols

The function org-toggle-pretty-entities was introduced in version 7.01. Call org-version and upgrade Org-mode if necessary.