Continue table in second column

[RichardSteadman]

Hi,

With styler 6.0 in APP mode, when a large table breaks onto the next
page is it possible to instruct Styler/APP to continue the table in
the second column of the page rather than the first?

Thanks,
Richard Steadman

[ebenton]

If it's a CALS table (SOEX), then I believe that the lack of a value for the pgwide attribute will automatically make a table stay in one column and go to the top of the next column when it reached the bottom of the page.
Whether you use Z-paging or L-paging with or without balance may also affect this. Or FOSI versus XSL-FO would also affect the markup required.

[RichardSteadman]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the suggestion. When the table is started in the second
column of the current page, what I would like it to do is to
continue in the second column of the next page, rather than the
natural flow into the first column of the next page.

It looks like it may not be possible, but I was hoping there
was some APP trick or something I could apply on the continued
part of the table to make it break into the next column.

I'm using APP for the formatting engine, not FOSI, so I don't think
I can use Z or L paging. I don't think that would have the desired
effect in any case.

Thanks,
Richard

[GarethOakes]

If the table goes to the second column of the next page then what would go
in the first column of the next page? Normal body text? If so, then what you
are asking for is a multi-page float (I think). This sounds like a very
unusual requirement so I'm sure an example would help.

-G

[RichardSteadman]

Hi Gareth,

Well, the scenario is that there's an image in the left column
and a table describing it in the right column, so if the table
hits the bottom of the page I need the left column blank (or
even repeating the image) and the table continuing in the right
column.

Probably I need an approach that doesn't use columns but some
other mechanism to place the image and table side-by-side.

Thanks,
Richard

[GarethOakes]

Yeah there are two things that come to mind:

1. Make your columns each separate frames with separate streams. Put the
images in the left-hand stream and the tables in the right-hand stream. You
can use APP feature to keep images lined up with tables. Getting
the images to repeat only when a table wraps to another page would require
some trickery though.

2. Use a wrapper table around both the images and the tables. The images go
in the first column, the tables in the second column of the outer table. If
you set on the outer table then the inner tables will be
allowed to break over pages. Getting the images to repeat in that situation
would be easier.

-G

[RichardSteadman]

Thanks again Gareth - I think I'll pursue the wrapper table approach.

The side-by-side example in the Service manual application in styler
uses a similar layout, though I'm not sure I can hang a custom
table off the elements I have to deal with. I might just try to
construct it with APP code instead.

Regards,
Richard