Print Table Styles - Do I have to apply them to each table?

[parsonsv]

I want the tables to appear differently in the print PDF output than in the Webhelp. I created a new table style called PRINT. In my help, I applied the WEB table style to my table, but in the table properties, I clicked the Print Styles button and set the print style for the table to the PRINT style sheet (I do need two different table style sheets, right?).

Anyway, my main question is: Do I have to find every table in my help and individually apply the print style to them, or is there a faster (global) way to do this in the WEB style sheet or in the target?

Thanks for your help.

[garyjgeoaccess]

As you probably already know, you can use the Table Properties dialog to apply a different table stylesheet, one for help and one for print (use the "Print Style" button). This is a cumbersome process, though, and must be applied on a case-by-case basis.

There is an alternative. You can manually edit your table stylesheet so it includes a print section, and in that print section you can include the alternative styles.

Unfortunately, in the Flare interface for editing tables, you're not given a "medium" dropdown--as happens when you edit the regular stylesheet used by topics. As a result, within Flare, it looks like you are only given a single set of table style options, and within a table stylesheet these options are used for both help and print purposes.

If you feel comfortable manually editing the table stylesheet, however, you can make a single stylesheet serve both your help and print needs. And thus you don't need to go through the cumbersome process of applying the print table stylesheet to all your tables.

For example, here is an example of a table style in a table stylesheet:

.TableStyle_TNtable
{
border-left-style: solid;
border-left-color: #999999;
border-left-width: 1px;
border-right-style: solid;
border-right-color: #999999;
border-right-width: 1px;
border-top-style: solid;
border-top-color: #999999;
border-top-width: 1px;
border-bottom-style: solid;
border-bottom-color: #999999;
border-bottom-width: 1px;
border-collapse: collapse;
border-spacing: 0px 0px;
mc-cell-padding: 0px 0px;
}

Note: This is just one style in the table stylesheet. There are many others.

To create a print style for this style, you need to add a print section to the stylesheet. It will look like this:

@media print
{
.TableStyle_TNtable
{
border-left-style: solid;
border-left-color: #999999;
border-left-width: 5pt;
border-right-style: solid;
border-right-color: #999999;
border-right-width: 5pt;
border-top-style: solid;
border-top-color: #999999;
border-top-width: 5pt;
border-bottom-style: solid;
border-bottom-color: #999999;
border-bottom-width: 5pt;
border-collapse: collapse;
border-spacing: 0px 0px;
mc-cell-padding: 0px 0px;
}
}

Notice in this example I changed the border width from 1px to 5pt for print output.

You'll need to examine each style in the table stylesheet and consider creating a new print style for each of these styles. Be sure to put these styles in the print section of the table stylesheet. The print section is preceded by "@media print" and it's wrapped with curly brackets {}.

If you don't feel comfortable editing the table stylesheet as I've described, then yes, you will need to create a new table style and apply it to all the tables.

[parsonsv]

garyjgeoaccess - you are my hero!!! Thanks

[Hobbes]

Just about the best tip ever! This really saved me. Here's hoping the next major Flare update includes a 'medium' selection in the GUI.

[garyjgeoaccess]

I probably should've said this before:
You can also tweak your tables by editing your regular topic stylesheet. This works fine for most simple table edits (such as borders and width).

For example, in WebHelp, our tables are set to 95% wide. In PDF, our tables are 6 inches wide (or 4.5 inches wide, depending on the table style used). We set the width with the topic stylesheet. It's easy to do. You might need to peek in each table stylesheet to figure out the class name that Flare is assigning to your table.

[Hobbes]

I just discovered one seriously annoying issue with this. I modified my table stylesheet and added a new media section as described. It worked perfectly and I was really happy with it.

Then I went back and opened the table stylesheet using the GUI editor and changed a border width setting and saved. Then I went back to my topics and all the tables looked wrong in the print medium.

When I opened the table stylesheet back up in the internal text editor, Flare had DELETED all my print media changes.

Maybe it was just me, but if you use this method (which really works) you might not want to go back to the GUI editor---ever.

[garyjgeoaccess]

Yikes. Good to know. Thanks.

[Hobbes]

Definitely recommend using the: File>Backups... tool on the table style sheet (and other stylesheets for that matter).

I had done this and after restoring the stylesheet I just had to redo a couple of things. What a relief.

[kcann]

This looks like my best solution for controlling table and column widths in Word output.

I have two-column tables that are set to 116px for the first column, and the second column should take up the rest of the page width. The table is single-sourced for WebHelp, PDF and Word output all three.

Within these tables, I have nested tables that also need to be 116px for the first column, and auto-sized to the width of the parent table column for the second. This works okay in WebHelp and PDF, but not in Word. I seem to have to set the Table tag in the topic stylesheet to a pixel size in order to get Word to follow the pixel setting in the first column, otherwise, the second column does not auto-size to the full width of the page. But I don't want to set all of the pixel sizes in the table, because I want the WebHelp and PDF output to do this automatically.

Help!

Thanks

K