Conference vaxuum::online_bookbuilding

24.0. "Turn-page tables?" by LADEDA::GRIGLACK () Wed Nov 02 1988 11:25

I have 7 very wide tables in a book that I'd like to put on CDROM.  Since the 
tables are so wide, they have been treated as art and have been produced as 
turn-page tables in the book.  My question is whether the online doctype has 
addressed the problem of wide tables?  I was under the impression that the
problem was solved by making the pop up window for the table as wide as is
necessary to fit the table.  Later I heard that the window size was not 
adjusted, but the font size used in the window was adjusted instead.

We could rewrite these particular tables to make them narrower so they
fit within the limitations of the doctype.  That is a fairly easy solution
for these particular tables.  However, I think the issue will come up often
in the future and I don't think the way we present information to the reader
should be constrained by the limitations of the tool.  We should be able to
present the information in the most useful format for the reader and the tool
should, ideally, be flexible enough to accomodate reasonable oddities.

Has this issue been addressed and is there any proposed resolution?

Lisa Griglack

    The popup window size *is* adjusted for the width of each table, to
    accommodate wide tables. If the table is too wide for the screen,
    you can navigate it with the horizontal scroll bars. We also made
    some adjustments in font sizes and other table formatting parameters
    to solve some formatting problems that were occurring in very wide,
    very complex tables. So, yes, we've addressed the problems that
    have come up so far. I would be interested in knowing if your tables
    present any new problems; I agree that the tools need to be flexible
    enough to present the information usefully.