Conference vaxuum::document_ft

71.0. "Having <SPAN> problem? Here's one fix..." by COOKIE::JOHNSTON () Fri Mar 06 1987 15:59

You, too, may run into this problem if you use <SPAN> for table 
headings.  This note also explains the fix, courtesy of Patti Anklam.

I had a table requiring headings thus:


                       Small Fixture             Large Fixture
Component          Minimum     Maximum        Minimum    Maximum



<SPAN> centered "Small Fixture" correctly, but "Large Fixture" was 
pushed to far to the left:

                       Small Fixture                       Large Fixture
Component          Minimum     Maximum        Minimum    Maximum



As Patti noted, this happened because <SPAN> was trying to span column 4 
to the margin, and not just through column 5.  The cure was to code the 
table for 6 columns and specifying a width for column 5, thereby fixing
the distance that <SPAN> spanned.

The documentation did not explain this.  Some might have intuited this 
behavior, but I suspect others like myself might not.  It would be 
a useful addition to the <SPAN> description in the UG.


Rose