TABLES HAVE NOW GONE HAYWIRE

[ktbCA57]

ok... so i was going along beautifully with tables yesterday.. then something happened and they are all screwed up now... attached is the "Insert Table" dialog... if you look at the "Preview" area.. you'll see some sort of text about "table cell outside table", etc... this is how ALL my tables now come up...

if inserted into a doc, you see the SAME text.. but you can't select it or anything. Figuring something was wrong with the code, i went into another project (where tables were fine), opened the table CSS in Notepad, copied all of it, then went into the problem project... and deleted the code from there and pasted in the code from the working table CSS... no change.. same result.. I get that same weird text!

As history.. I did go into ONE table CSS and make some changes.. but never touched any of the others.. so i could see how perhaps that one table CSS might go cockeyed on me.. but now they are all like that.

also, the program crashed at one point.. but I rebooted after.... so now i'm wondering if the whole project is corrupt...

If i need to recreate a new project, what's the best way so as to prevent bringing any corrupted elements?

HOLY COW!

[KevinDAmery]

It appears that somewhere there is a setting telling the table to be very narrow. The question is where.

Just for testing, try changing one table to use a different table style (I see from your screen shot that you have 4 to choose from - switch to any of the others). If the table width is correct after you do that, then the problem is in your table style. OTOH, if the table remains narrow like it is now, the problem is in your main stylesheet or is inline in the topic. First look in the main stylesheet in the Table tag and see if there is a width setting that doesn't make sense. If there is a numeric width setting, also check the units (for example, you may have been trying to set inches or centimeters, but if the units didn't take properly the default for Flare is pixels, which will make things a lot narrower....) If that isn't it, look in the html code of the topic for the same sort of thing.

[ktbCA57]

try changing one table to use a different table style (I see from your screen shot that you have 4 to choose from - switch to any of the others). If the table width is correct after you do that, then the problem is in your table style.

When i select ANY table in that list of 4, they all show this weird preview.

First look in the main stylesheet in the Table tag and see if there is a width setting that doesn't make sense.

Which one is the "main" one.. is that the one named "Basic.css"? I'm thinking not.. but other than that, I'm not thinking of where that "main" one would be found...

and will i be looking at the "code" to find this "narrow" thing? I'm looking at the "Basic" table code now and not yet seeing anything that i recognize.

and an FYI... yesterday when this first occurred, i wasn't in the table style sheet.. i was only in the topic but it screwed up all the tables in the project... styles that i wasn't even working on... very weird.

Also... here are the messages that come up under the topic window when i select "default" from the list of option for inserting a table:

Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section
Found non-table row inside table section

[KevinDAmery]

The main stylesheet is the one you use to control the overall look of your project (ie. the one where you defined your paragraph styles, your headings, etc.) Flare's default is to call this Styles.css, although you can change it if you want. Since changing the table style doesn't restore the proper width, I don't think the table styles are at fault: so the issue is either in the main stylesheet or is embedded in the topic HTML (although it would be very odd for all of your topics to get the same inline formatting at once).

[ktbCA57]

ok.. so when i look at the main CSS. (Styles.css), under "table", i see this:

table.NOTE
{
font-family: Arial;
background-color: #cccccc;
border-top: double 3pt;
font-size: 9pt;
border-spacing: 0;
padding-left: 0pt;
text-align: left;
}

table
{
background-color: #ffffff;

so i'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that under the actual "table" item, there's nothing but a background color showing? no other table information shows... oh.. a couple of things listed as "td".. but not sure what that is... but basically the above code is all i see related to tables!

I was just looking at the stylesheet in a sample project i made a few days ago.. and see this:

table.cell_text_bold
{
width: 100%;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: auto;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
font-size: 9pt;
font-family: Arial;
}

td.cell_text_BOLD
{
margin-left: 0em;
padding-left: 1.5em;
padding-right: 1em;
border-bottom-width: .5em;
border-left-width: .5em;
border-right-width: .5em;
border-top-width: .5em;
font-weight: bold;
font-style: normal;
font-size: 9pt;
font-family: Arial;
}

table
{
text-align: left;
}

li
{

}

MadCap|expandingHead._STEP2_PLUS
{

}

table.SHADED_TableStyle_Basic
{
mc-table-style: url('../Resources/TableStyles/Basic.css');
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: auto;
caption-side: top;

so maybe i need to copy the sample project style sheet table stuff and paste it into the current project? or should i be looking for more.. seems sort of sparse!

Am even looking at the right info?

[ktbCA57]

ok.. i pasted the table info from the sample project (with working tables) into the current project (without working tables) - no luck.. didn't change anything.

[ktbCA57]

here's how the code looks in one of the topics with a messed up table:

<table class="TableStyle_Basic" style=" margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: auto;" cellspacing="0">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="TableStyle_Basic_Head_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">In this field..</th>
<th class="TableStyle_Basic_Head_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Enter the following:</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Date</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Date upon which the client was (or will be) terminated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Reason</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Reason the client is being terminated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Adminstrator</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Name of the administrator associated with this client.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Contact</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Name of the person to be contacted regarding this termination.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowEnd_ColSep">Phone Number</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowEnd_ColEnd">Usually the phone number of the contact noted above.- </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


ALL TABLES LOOK THIS WAY NOW... ALL THE WAY THRU IN OTHER TOPICS... I've tried deleting them from the code in topics.. and reinserting... no change... it's a puzzler....

[KevinDAmery]

I wouldn't copy code from one css into another, because it won't remove the existing code - you'll end up with all the code together in one CSS, which can result in conflicts and make things even more confusing. What you could do, though, is backup your existing stylesheet (i.e. copy it somewhere safe so you don't lose it, or rename it), then copy the sample stylesheet into your current project (if necessary, rename it to match the one from your project). This will allow you to see what the project looks like with a baseline stylesheet - if the tables are the correct width then you'll know that that's where to start looking.

(Note: the copied stylesheet won't have all of your classes in it, so the rest of your topics won't look right. The purpose of this exercise is to isolate the problem.)

You were wondering earlier about td tags. These are table cells, and are one type of tag you'll find in HTML tables.

- table - this is this tag that defines the start of a given table
- tr - this tag defines the start of a row in the table. The row ends when there is a </tr> tag. Both must be inside the <table> </table> tag set
- th - this is a table heading. You can have a number of these in a row. The heading cells for a given row must be inside the <tr> </tr> tag set
- td - this is a table cell. Like headings, you can have a number of these in a row. The cells for a given row must be inside the <tr> </tr> tag set

And of course you can have classes for each of these tag types.

[KevinDAmery]

here's how the code looks in one of the topics with a messed up table:

<table class="TableStyle_Basic" style=" margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: auto;" cellspacing="0">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="TableStyle_Basic_Head_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">In this field..</th>
<th class="TableStyle_Basic_Head_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Enter the following:</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Date</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Date upon which the client was (or will be) terminated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Reason</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Reason the client is being terminated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Adminstrator</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Name of the administrator associated with this client.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColSep">Contact</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowSep_ColEnd">Name of the person to be contacted regarding this termination.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowEnd_ColSep">Phone Number</td>
<td class="TableStyle_Basic_Body_0_0_RowEnd_ColEnd">Usually the phone number of the contact noted above.- </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


ALL TABLES LOOK THIS WAY NOW... ALL THE WAY THRU IN OTHER TOPICS... I've tried deleting them from the code in topics.. and reinserting... no change... it's a puzzler....

Ok, that looks normal. The table tag is defining the table class and a left margin (although I'd prefer to get rid of the margin and width from this tag and let the CSS handle it). The TD tags define which class to use. Overall, I don't see anything evil in here. So the problem must be in the css itself.

[ktbCA57]

apparently... you are still a genius!

so I did a "save as" of the "bad" CSS from Notepad... renamed it and put it in a folder outside the project... then i copied the Stylesheet.css file (without opening it.. just copied the file, and pasted it into my screwed up project)... so now the tables look ok again... sort of anyway... more normal as it were... because this old CSS doesn't have all the styles, etc.. as you mentioned.

but some of the p styles/classes and such that i had in the "BAD" CSS were a pain to create... and I figure the best way is to recreate them with this "replacement" CSS... since i can't seem to find the problem with the "bad" one... but is there an easier way to get at leat the p styles/classes (including h - header styles/classes, etc. back?

Thanks...

[KevinDAmery]

I agree it's probably easier to add the classes you need to the replacement css than to try to fix the original.

As far as migrating your classes over, that you can do with copy and paste (since the classes shouldn't exist at all in the replacement stylesheet, it shouldn't cause any conflicts). Here's how I would do it:

1) Backup the replacement stylesheet. (So that if something goes haywire again you can get back to this point).
2) Open both the old stylesheet and the replacement in text editors so that you can see them side by side (two instances of Notepad should be fine).
3) Scroll through each stylesheet.
4) When you find a class in the old stylesheet that isn't in the replacement and that you know was behaving properly, copy it over.
5) Save the replacement from time to time as you do this and see what your topics look like. If it looks good, make another backup. If it looks funky, revert back to your last "good" backup.
6) Also, while you're going through, take a look at what the code is for each class. This will help you get familiar with the css, and if you see anything that looks wonky you'll have a chance to fix it or remove it now rather than having to try to track it down later.

This process will be a little time consuming, but it should get you where you need to be and get you more familiar with your css so that if things go haywire again you have some idea where to look.

[ktbCA57]

I sorta cheated and went ahead and started pretty much what you suggested... but haven't backed up the replacement.. which i shall now do.. IMMEDIATELY!

fortunately, I don't have TOOO many classes to add... maybe 10 or so.. so shouldn't be a problem

THANKS SOOOO SOOOO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!

[ktbCA57]

Just a quick follow up...

Looks like I successfully (knock on wood) copied over all my working p and h styles/classes from the old css to the replacement... i didn't copy over ANY table stuff... I figured I'd just recreate those as I didn't want to bring in ANYTHING that might recreate the problem i had before...

SOOOO... so far so good!

THANKS AGAIN KEVIN.. for now i'm good to go... WHEW!

YOU HAVE JUST IMPROVED YOUR KARMA A THOUSAND-FOLD!

[KevinDAmery]

Glad it's working.

If you haven't already, make a backup of your current css. Just in case you end up with the same problem when you start reworking the tables.

[ktbCA57]

doy! EXCELLENT IDEA.. i've backed up all the others.. but not that one! lol

thanks! AAAGGGAAAIINNN!