[XeTeX] table indentation
Mike Maxwell
maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu
Mon Nov 23 05:47:09 CET 2009
Ross Moore wrote:
> You just set the table inside a box, and measure it,
> before inserting it onto the page (or doing something else).
>
> In TeX primitives, the procedure is:
I asked a similar question on this list (and a couple other lists) about
a year ago, but got no replies at that time. I have to think that this
topic (getting tables to *automatically* fit on a page, or
*automatically* use a package that enables them to run onto successive
pages with appropriate headings) comes up more these days, since there
are non-manual ways to generate documents. Michiel Kamermans' scenario
was the automatic generation of tables from web data; I've also heard of
people generating documents where the tabular data comes from a
database. In our case, the xelatex docs are converted from DocBook. In
all these cases, it is undesirable to have to hand-edit the xelatex code
after the conversion, because that would need to do that every time the
source data changed.
I wonder if you (or someone) would be interested in creating a package
that would do what you have outlined in your email: create a table in
latex, then test its size; based on the size, it would automagically
choose whether to set the table in an ordinary floating table
environment, turn it sideways, or run it over successive pages, using
existing packages (supertabular,...). I guess there would be a number
of options, depending on whether the user considered it to be acceptable
to reduce the space between columns, the font size, etc.
I know I would be indebted!
--
Mike Maxwell
What good is a universe without somebody around to look at it?
--Robert Dicke, Princeton physicist
More information about the XeTeX
mailing list