[xep-support] Table positioning

[Clary, Brian D.]

On Thursday, December 11, 2003 6:06 AM Alex Peshkov
[mailto:peshkov at renderx.com] wrote:

> Hello, Brian.
> 
> If you want to create page-wide table which spans multi-column page
> you just need to set width of the table to "100%" and place this table
> inside of the fo:block with span="all" attribute. Not that such a
> block must be a direct descendant of fo:flow. If it's the first child
> of the flow it will be placed at the top of the first page. However
> it's not possible to place this table at arbitrary point of the flow
> and make float to the top of the page - there is no such 
> means in XSL FO.

Ah, didn't know about span="all".  That works nicely, but it brings up
another question.  If the table spans both columns and is centered in the
page vertically, then the the flow of text is this (wraps to the next column
before the table instead of at the bottom of the page):

---------------------------------
| -------------  -------------- |
| |           |  |            | |
| |  Text #1  |  |  Text #2   | |
| |           |  |            | |
| -------------  -------------- |
| ----------------------------- |
| |                           | |
| |           Table           | |
| |                           | |
| ----------------------------- |
| -------------  -------------- |
| |           |  |            | |
| |  Text #3  |  |  Text #4   | |
| |           |  |            | |
| -------------  -------------- |
---------------------------------

But we would prefer, if possible, that the text flow in this order (down the
whole page before wrapping to the next column):

---------------------------------
| -------------  -------------- |
| |           |  |            | |
| |  Text #1  |  |  Text #3   | |
| |           |  |            | |
| -------------  -------------- |
| ----------------------------- |
| |                           | |
| |           Table           | |
| |                           | |
| ----------------------------- |
| -------------  -------------- |
| |           |  |            | |
| |  Text #2  |  |  Text #4   | |
| |           |  |            | |
| -------------  -------------- |
---------------------------------

We've also used span="all" on large images also, and we noticed that if
there is not enough room at the bottom of the page, then the image is shown
on the next page, which is fine, but it leaves a lot of white space on the
previous page (where the image couldn't fit).  Is there any way around this?


> As for recommended reading on XSL FO - we have an XSL FO tutorial
> (look here http://xep.xattic.com/xep/doc/doc.html), and a number of
> samples (here http://xep.xattic.com/xep/testsuite/testsuite.html).
> Note that our tutorial (tutorial.pdf) and some basic samples are
> included in XEP distribution.
> 
> There are several invaluable XSL FO resources listed at our links page
> at http://xep.xattic.com/xep/links/ref.html
> They are worth exploring.

Thanks for these and the help.  Lots to look through.

> Best regards,
> Alexander Peshkov                             
> mailto:peshkov at renderx.com
> RenderX

-- 
Brian Clary
Database Technician
UF/IFAS Information Technologies
TEL: 352-392-3196
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