Table Columns Same Size in Flare But Different in Word

[Mishou6779]

Hi all,

Before I spend one of my precious, precious support calls I thought I would submit my problem to this forum to see if anyone knows what's going on.

I have a help topic in my Flare project that contains two tables. When I generate my output into a Word document, the table columns do not line up, as illustrated in this first picture.

5 Tables MC Forum.png

Both tables have been set to 100 percent for table size, and for both tables the Parameter columns and Attributes columns are set to 20 percent each and the Description columns are set to 60 percent each. The following image illustrates the table and column sizes for the first table.

1 Tables MC Forum.png

This picture illustrates that the second table is set up the same way as the first table.

2 Tables MC Forum.png

I looked in the code and it looks to me like both tables are set up correctly in the HTML, as illustrated in the following two pictures.

This one shows the code for the first table:

3 Tables MC Forum.png

And this one shows the code for the second table:

4 Tables MC Forum.png

What am I missing? What have I done wrong? I know I can generate the Word output and then putz with the table columns in Word, but that defeats the purpose of generating this output from Flare. And the less I have to deal with Word the better, know what I mean?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Sincerely,
Michelle

[ChoccieMuffin]

Hmm... I suspect it is because the text in your first column in the first box is too long for the cell width, so Word expands the box to try to fit it all on one line.

I don't know how you could handle the Flare to Word problem, but in Word right-click the table and select Properties, then click Options and clear the "Automatically resize to fit contents" check box.

That may get you some of the way along the road, but ideally you'd be able to specify this setting when generating your Word output from Flare. Hope that helps a little bit.

[Mishou6779]

Hi ChoccieMuffin,

After I posted, I was looking at the tables and I noticed that too, that the text in the first table is one character longer than the text in the second table. However, there are several more tables in the document that are three columns wide and all of them are consistently set up the same (bit of a control freak, haha) and some of them are also one character longer but the column widths stay the same (20/20/60).

Before I posted here, I did go in and check the Automatically resize to fit contents field and it was definitely cleared. (Is it possible to have a least favorite field in Word? I think that's mine...and who was the nincompoop at Microsoft who decided that should always be selected by default!?)

I will have to decide whether this irritates me enough to spend a support call on it. It's annoying but not a show-stopper.

Thanks for your reply, I do appreciate it!

Michelle

[ChoccieMuffin]

Yeah, there are quite a few hated defaults in Word - so glad I very rarely use it now!

I have had a bit of a head-scratch about this, and I have a suggestion you could try, though remember it is just a suggestion and might not be a solution.

I am assuming you use a specific medium for your Word output, and a different medium for any other kind of output, such as online.

If this is the case, then in the Word output medium keep the table width as 100% and adjust the column widths for your first two columns to a specified width, e.g. 4cm or whatever you want to use. (Don't put a fixed value for the third column, in case you have an instance of a table which is nested in a bullet, for example.) DO THIS IN YOUR TABLE STYLESHEET.

Try to generate the document and see what happens. I would hope that you'd end up with columns 4cm wide, but of course this IS Word we're talking about so I could be completely wrong.

Best of luck, and do say whether it works or not.

ps. Those widths that you have in your code - 20%, 20% and 60% - are they inline styles, or is that how your table stylesheet comes out? If inline, and you want your tables to all be the same, then put that into the table stylesheet rather than into each table, makes it a lot easier to manage that way.

[Mishou6779]

I did try your suggestions, but have to leave early [now] and my post will take a bit (want to use pictures, etc.), so will post another reply tomorrow to 'splain what I found. Just didn't want you to think I was being rude and dropping off.

[Mishou6779]

Hi ChoccieMuffin,

So I played with your suggestions and set the Parameter and Attributes columns to 20 percent and left the Description column at "Auto." The result is that the first two columns are the same width but now the Description column is different. (This is not the result I was expecting.)

1 Tables Illustration.png

I also used your suggestion to make a table stylesheet *hand to forehead* and format the tables that way instead of inline. DUH. Sometimes I amaze myself. Clearly using Flare isn't one of my superpowers. Anyway, that said, after I made the table stylesheet, I decided to count the characters in the Parameter columns in the tables that have one character that wraps onto the row just beneath it. In the table that is a problem in the picture above, there are 21 characters. In the tables in the picture below, the first cell contains 18 characters, but still, one character wraps.

2 Tables Illustration.png

I think I'm left with this choice: 1. Call MadCap and use a support call. 2. Try changing the column widths to 25/25/50 and see if that resolves it.

Now that I have the table stylesheet set up I can more easily change the column widths and test it to see if that solves the problem (since that's the solution, for now, that doesn't cost me anything but time).

Thanks for your help!

Michelle

[Mishou6779]

ChoccieMuffin,

I think changing the columns looks like the simplest and fastest way to go about this. Doesn't truly "solve" the problem, but now all the tables come out looking the same and ultimately that's what I'm after.

This first picture illustrates what the problem table looks like now that my table stylesheet columns are set to 25/25/50:

3 Tables Illustration.png

And this picture illustrates that the other tables look good, too:

4 Tables Illustration.png

I'm just going to go with that for now.

Thank you again for mentioning the benefits of using a table stylesheet as opposed to inline formatting. I know inline formatting is a sin (I never do that in Word!) and yet there I was, blithely inline formatting my little heart out.

Thanks for your help!!

Michelle

[ChoccieMuffin]

Pleasure. Did you try adjusting your stylesheet to use a specified width (e.g. 4cm) rather than percentages, for your print medium only? That might make it a bit more controllable.

Happy easter!

[Mishou6779]

Thank you! Happy Easter to you too! (Where's that bunny smiley when I need it!?)

I just need to clarify--if I set my column widths to a specific width (as you say, 4cm) only for my print medium, then what is the expected behavior in Word? I'm asking this with the assumption that their troublesome Automatically resize to fit contents field is cleared (off). So if that field is cleared, and then I set my column widths to specific widths in my table spreadsheet for my print medium, then will Word be forced to wrap the text? And the columns don't budge? That's my expectation.

I understand why I use the percentages for my web output...that's so that the tables and columns expand and contract when the user alters the width of his or her browser window. Are column percentages "fixed" in Word? Do you happen to know? Maybe that's a question for Microsoft. I always kind of assumed that in Word the percentages were fixed, but then again I never really thought very hard about it.

[ChoccieMuffin]

Sorry, was away. And I'm afraid I can't answer your wonderings either, as I don't use Word output. My suggestion is to just give it a go and see what happens!

Hope it worked for you.