From: Matt Price <moptop99@gmail.com>
To: Matt Price <moptop99@gmail.com>, Org Mode <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: org->odt/html table export: adjusting default behaviour?
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:24:38 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAN_Dec9wpi1Us_5t5+39CWM2e9OWje0RyYtfhmgfg0U9aH-GhA@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <81pqjtqife.fsf@gmail.com>
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4068 bytes --]
On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 5:40 PM, Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Matt Price <moptop99@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> The attached test file shows an org file with tables whose columns
>> include substantial amounts of text. The default export to odt is
>> pretty ugly in this case, and even in html (where things work to some
>> extent) I would rather be able to control to some extent the way that
>> long fields wrap. is there a recommended way to do set values like
>> table and column width for these two exports? I guess I am
>> particularly concerned with the odt export -- can I e.g. adjust a
>> default value somewhere in the styles.xml file? I doubt the problem
>> will be easily solved but if someone can point me in the right
>> direction I'd really appreciate it.
>
> The issue is not that fields don't wrap well but that the table is big
> for the width of the paper and columns are as a result getting
> congested.
yes, that's a better description.
>
> I have pushed a fix whereby tables now occupy bigger space [1].
>
> I also noticed that columns are unevenly spaced. Now I have updated the
> styles so that columns are equally spaced [2].
>
> Orgmode exporters can never be layout engines. They are also typically
> useful for personal (as opposed to professional) production. In some
> sense they are good for handouts, pamphlets and drafts etc. So some
> amount of hand fixing and finer adjustments would always be required.
That makes sense, of course. My issue in this case is that I update this
particular file quite frequently & store it online in a repository. It would
be nice if I could code the table formatting into the org file so that I
don't have to hand-fix the formatting on each iteration. But on the other
hand, maybe a table isn't really the right tool in such a case -- as you
suggest, a spreadsheet (or perhaps a structured outline, which org excels
at) might be better.
>
> You choose a smaller font for text in the table with:
>
> F11->Paragraph Styles->OrgTableContents->Choose a smaller (say 10 pt)
> font.
that's helpful, and I can presumably save this change to my styles.xml file
for future use.
>
> This will affect the text in all the tables.
>
> For the sake of documentation,
>
> Vertical and horizontal grid lines in the exported table correspond to
> colgroups (specified in table cookie lines) and by horizontal rulers in
> the org table [3]. You can use these grid lines in the Org file and
> automatically the exporter will create the grid lines for you.
>
> If you need really prettier tables you can rely on Table->Autoformat.
>
> Footnotes:
> [1] So there is now a reverse problem of tables with less number of
> columns and not having copious text looking too big. But big is better
> even if it is ugly.
>
> The workaround is to rely on Table Properties->Table->Width
>
> [2] Pre-processor in org-exp.el groks l, r, c cookies but ignores the
> colwidth directives. With some changes these colwidth directives could
> be used for controlling the relative width of columns on a per-table
> basis. This has to wait. If there is sufficient demand I can consider
> adding this support.
>
> The workaround is to rely on Table Properties->Columns->Column Width
>
> [3] The exporter wouldn't still create vertical lines on the extreme
> ends. I believe the default style of tables is so selected based on some
> standard styling manual.
In my view the problem here is that Openoffie is difficult to work with for
some of these formatting tasks -- so really this is an issue that's hard for
you to fix. But for instance, I have had a lot of difficulty trying to
change the colour of the timestamps -- in fact for now I've given up! But I
think the issue might just be that LibreOffice/Openoffice doesn't redraw the
document properly after certain style changes, so I can't actually tell
whether my style changes (to OrgTimestamp and ORgTimestampWrapper character
styles in the style manager, F11) have been effective.
sorry that was a digression. Thanks so much for your help on this issue.
matt
[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 4712 bytes --]
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2011-08-26 14:24 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2011-08-25 15:12 org->odt/html table export: adjusting default behaviour? Matt Price
2011-08-25 15:36 ` Matt Price
2011-08-25 21:40 ` Jambunathan K
2011-08-26 14:24 ` Matt Price [this message]
2011-08-28 22:33 ` Jambunathan K
2011-08-28 22:40 ` [PATCH 1/2] Parse and store both col align and col width spec for later use Jambunathan K
2011-08-28 22:41 ` [PATCH 2/2] org-odt.el: Put table style and col sizes under direct user control Jambunathan K
2011-09-14 9:56 ` [odt] Support for table templates (was Re: org->odt/html table export: adjusting default behaviour?) Jambunathan K
2011-08-25 22:01 ` org->odt/html table export: adjusting default behaviour? Jambunathan K
2011-08-26 14:13 ` Matt Price
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
List information: https://www.orgmode.org/
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=CAN_Dec9wpi1Us_5t5+39CWM2e9OWje0RyYtfhmgfg0U9aH-GhA@mail.gmail.com \
--to=moptop99@gmail.com \
--cc=emacs-orgmode@gnu.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).