docbook-apps

I'm delivering a doc for a client that has a lot of tables. Output will be
primarily PDF. Although I use XEP with Oxygen to output the PDF, my client
wants to use only open source tools to generate their PDF. (ie.
apache-fop). The client would also like HTML output -- it's less critical
but nice-to-have.

I'm somewhat new to CALS tables, so I've been learning about how to do
borders and to set column width.

IN the description of colspec, (
http://docbook.org/tdg51/en/html/colspec.html), I see no description of
values for this. But Oxygen's table wizard and Bob's example (
http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/Borders.html ) uses
colwidth="1.0*" . I have no idea what that means. Can someone explain? In
particular, what does that asterisk mean?

When colwidth="1.0*", the default CALS table appears to be making every
column of equal width, which is not particularly good for me. If I remove
all the colwidth attributes, then the PDF defaults to everything having
the same width.

For CALS tables, do I need to specify column width in cm or inches?

My main reason for going for CALS over HTML tables is that I can't get
HTML tables to put borders anywhere on the PDF output. (Can anyone confirm
this?) On the other hand, if I use CALS tables, what happens to the HTML
output? (Does it just make the width dynamic?)

Finally, if I assume that colwidth has some auto-size feature (probably
not?), what kind of support can I expect from Apache-FOP?

Thanks.


--
Robert Nagle
6121 Winsome Ln #56C, Houston TX 77057-5581
(H) 713 893 3424/ (W) 832-251-7522 Carbon Neutral Since Jan 2010
http://www.robertnagle.info

Hi Robert
Here is what works for me.

<informaltable frame="all">

<tgroup cols="3">
<colspec colname="c1" colwidth="1*+1pc"/>
<colspec colname="c2" colwidth="2*+1pc"/>
<colspec colname="c3" colwidth="2*+1pc"/>
. . . .
</informaltable>

If you want the table to show up in the TOC or list of Tables use "table."
Cheers Paul



On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 10:29 AM, Robert Nagle <idiotprogrammer@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm delivering a doc for a client that has a lot of tables. Output will be
> primarily PDF. Although I use XEP with Oxygen to output the PDF, my client
> wants to use only open source tools to generate their PDF. (ie.
> apache-fop). The client would also like HTML output -- it's less critical
> but nice-to-have.
>
> I'm somewhat new to CALS tables, so I've been learning about how to do
> borders and to set column width.
>
> IN the description of colspec, (
> http://docbook.org/tdg51/en/html/colspec.html), I see no description of
> values for this. But Oxygen's table wizard and Bob's example (
> http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/Borders.html ) uses
> colwidth="1.0*" . I have no idea what that means. Can someone explain? In
> particular, what does that asterisk mean?
>
> When colwidth="1.0*", the default CALS table appears to be making every
> column of equal width, which is not particularly good for me. If I remove
> all the colwidth attributes, then the PDF defaults to everything having
> the same width.
>
> For CALS tables, do I need to specify column width in cm or inches?
>
> My main reason for going for CALS over HTML tables is that I can't get
> HTML tables to put borders anywhere on the PDF output. (Can anyone confirm
> this?) On the other hand, if I use CALS tables, what happens to the HTML
> output? (Does it just make the width dynamic?)
>
> Finally, if I assume that colwidth has some auto-size feature (probably
> not?), what kind of support can I expect from Apache-FOP?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> --
> Robert Nagle
> 6121 Winsome Ln #56C, Houston TX 77057-5581
> (H) 713 893 3424/ (W) 832-251-7522 Carbon Neutral Since Jan 2010
> http://www.robertnagle.info
>

Here is the description of CALS table column widths:

http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/ColumnWidths.html

The * means proportional.

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net

On 7/9/2014 5:59 AM, Robert Nagle wrote:
> I'm delivering a doc for a client that has a lot of tables. Output will
> be primarily PDF. Although I use XEP with Oxygen to output the PDF, my
> client wants to use only open source tools to generate their PDF. (ie.
> apache-fop). The client would also like HTML output -- it's less
> critical but nice-to-have.
>
> I'm somewhat new to CALS tables, so I've been learning about how to do
> borders and to set column width.
>
> IN the description of colspec,
> (http://docbook.org/tdg51/en/html/colspec.html), I see no description of
> values for this. But Oxygen's table wizard and Bob's example (
> http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/Borders.html ) uses
> colwidth="1.0*" . I have no idea what that means. Can someone explain?
> In particular, what does that asterisk mean?
>
> When colwidth="1.0*", the default CALS table appears to be making
> every column of equal width, which is not particularly good for me. If I
> remove all the colwidth attributes, then the PDF defaults to everything
> having the same width.
>
> For CALS tables, do I need to specify column width in cm or inches?
>
> My main reason for going for CALS over HTML tables is that I can't get
> HTML tables to put borders anywhere on the PDF output. (Can anyone
> confirm this?) On the other hand, if I use CALS tables, what happens to
> the HTML output? (Does it just make the width dynamic?)
>
> Finally, if I assume that colwidth has some auto-size feature
> (probably not?), what kind of support can I expect from Apache-FOP?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> --
> Robert Nagle
> 6121 Winsome Ln #56C, Houston TX 77057-5581
> (H) 713 893 3424/ (W) 832-251-7522 Carbon Neutral Since Jan 2010
> http://www.robertnagle.info

Thanks. I must have missed that page. That explained everything!

Robert


On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 10:57 AM, Bob Stayton <bobs@sagehill.net> wrote:

> Here is the description of CALS table column widths:
>
> http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/ColumnWidths.html
>
> The * means proportional.
>
> Bob Stayton
> Sagehill Enterprises
> bobs@sagehill.net
>
>
> On 7/9/2014 5:59 AM, Robert Nagle wrote:
>
>> I'm delivering a doc for a client that has a lot of tables. Output will
>> be primarily PDF. Although I use XEP with Oxygen to output the PDF, my
>> client wants to use only open source tools to generate their PDF. (ie.
>> apache-fop). The client would also like HTML output -- it's less
>> critical but nice-to-have.
>>
>> I'm somewhat new to CALS tables, so I've been learning about how to do
>> borders and to set column width.
>>
>> IN the description of colspec,
>> (http://docbook.org/tdg51/en/html/colspec.html), I see no description of
>> values for this. But Oxygen's table wizard and Bob's example (
>> http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/Borders.html ) uses
>> colwidth="1.0*" . I have no idea what that means. Can someone explain?
>> In particular, what does that asterisk mean?
>>
>> When colwidth="1.0*", the default CALS table appears to be making
>> every column of equal width, which is not particularly good for me. If I
>> remove all the colwidth attributes, then the PDF defaults to everything
>> having the same width.
>>
>> For CALS tables, do I need to specify column width in cm or inches?
>>
>> My main reason for going for CALS over HTML tables is that I can't get
>> HTML tables to put borders anywhere on the PDF output. (Can anyone
>> confirm this?) On the other hand, if I use CALS tables, what happens to
>> the HTML output? (Does it just make the width dynamic?)
>>
>> Finally, if I assume that colwidth has some auto-size feature
>> (probably not?), what kind of support can I expect from Apache-FOP?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Robert Nagle
>> 6121 Winsome Ln #56C, Houston TX 77057-5581
>> (H) 713 893 3424/ (W) 832-251-7522 Carbon Neutral Since Jan 2010
>> http://www.robertnagle.info
>>
>


--
Robert Nagle
6121 Winsome Ln #56C, Houston TX 77057-5581
(H) 713 893 3424/ (W) 832-251-7522 Carbon Neutral Since Jan 2010
http://www.robertnagle.info