At 2011-09-15 10:31 -0500, Brian Popp wrote:
> If your writers are not using numbered table columns, then you could
> predictably put a ghost first cell on every row, of zero width, with empty
> blocks in it, where the empty block has the float outside the
margin. You'd
> have to be careful about table borders if the writer has control over the
> cell border interaction with the table border.
Interesting idea. That would work, but I don't think I could rely on
our writers remembering to do this and wouldn't want to try and
maintain it. I'm gonna keep hacking w/ absolute positioning. I think
that's my only hope at this point. I just need to figure out some way
to make it use absolute positioning for the x axis and relative
positioning for the y axis.
I wasn't asking your authors to add the ghost column. I was
suggesting that as you process your author's tables, *you* insert the
ghost column on every row. That way it is predictable and maintainable.
I see these kinds of comments in the classroom. Not all input has to
come from the authors ... some of it can come from you. The
stylesheet writer has the flexibility to make the end XSL-FO result
contain *anything* they need to get the job done, such that they can
add *whatever* supplemental information gives them the result they need.
So, in your situation, your stylesheet gets a table from the
author. As you process the author's rows, *you* inject a first row
cell every time you create the row and before you process the
author's cells for that row. You make that first cell zero size and
you handle all of the floats for that row, your authors think their
first column is the first column in the result because they can't see
your ghost cells.
But your stylesheet has put one on every row and they just can't see it.
That was why I warned you about the impacts of the ghost cell on your
author's expectations. If your author controls the interaction
between their first cell border and the table border, you've
interfered with that with your ghost cell. If your author is using
column numbering approaches, you've interfered with that with your
ghost cell. There might be other interactions based on your
vocabulary, but those come to mind off the top of my head.
So it isn't a panacea, but if you can use it it isn't an obligation
on your authors. If you can inject that ghost cell without
interfering with your author's interactions with the row or table,
then in the end result your author doesn't realize you've added it.
I hope this helps.
. . . . . . . . . . . . Ken
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