Merged cells misbehaving in PDF output

[Nita Beck]

Is this another PDF output bug?

I'm using Flare V4.2.1, outputting to PDF and to WebHelp.

I have a table with some merged (vertically) cells. In one cell, I've got two paragraphs. The presence of the second paragraph seems to cause the merged cells to its left, when rendered in the PDF, to be drawn incorrectly. However, in WebHelp, the table looks perfect.

Here's a peek at the the perfect WebHelp table. Notice the cells I've circled.

merged_cells_in_webhelp.gif

Now here's the same table in the PDF. Notice the cells I've circled, how the borders aren't being rendered correctly. If I delete the "NOTE" paragraph, the problem goes away.

merged_cells_in_PDF.gif

Any ideas? I'll post code if that's necessary.

Thanks,
Nita

[garyjgeoaccess]

Is this example actually from a PDF or is it from the XML Editor?

I've seen many situations where the XML Editor did not display a table correctly; however, when sent to PDF, the output was fine.

[Nita Beck]

This is how it is rendered in the output PDF, as well as in the Preview.

It looks just fine in the XML Editor, so this is opposite of what you've witnessed, I guess.

[garyjgeoaccess]

Yep. The opposite of what I've witnessed.

If you post your table code, I'll see if I can duplicate the problem.

We simplified most of our tables because Flare struggles with complicated tables. It does fine with simple tables with no cell merging. But the more merging, the greater the chance for layout problems.

Flare's methodology for table construction is somewhat suspect, in my opinion. Flare contributes to the complexity problem by introducing additional table code that isn't typically necessary in HTML. I frequently look at the table code and rip out the extraneous junk that Flare throws in.

[LTinker68]

I've stopped using table stylesheets altogether because of the problem it has with merged cells. I create custom td and/or tr styles in the main topic stylesheet and apply them as necessary to my tables. It's a bit more of a pain if you're alternating row colors and add a row, but it allows for more flexibility.

[Nita Beck]

Oooooo.... I really don't like your answer, Lisa (though I like you ). But I fear that you might be right, which is an especially bummer answer 'cause I just helped a fellow Flare user to set up table stylesheets last week...

[LTinker68]

Luckily I discovered that merged cell issue with the very first table I created so I learned the lesson quickly. Unfortunately, it's still an issue, and that was back in Flare v1.x, I believe.

[Nita Beck]

Well, I've spent several hours now trying an experiment in a copy of my project; I'm trying to get rid of the table stylesheets and instead have been playing with tr, td, th, table styles, etc. So far, I can get my WebHelp versions of the tables to behave (though I'm working with very simple tables at this point, none with merged cells), but I am having problems with the PDF versions of the tables. (I've got two stylesheets-- PrintPDFStyles.css and WebHelpStyles.css -- rather than using mediums.)

So what do you do when you want to set a column with a different background from all the other columns? Although I can define a col style via the Stylesheet Editor or the internal text editor, I can't figure out a way that I can select a column and set it to that col style via the Flare interface. The only way I see to set a column to that col style is to manually edit the .htm file in the internal text editor, and that's a REAL ugly solution. Am I missing something obvious?

[Nita Beck]

Update:

I ditched the table styles (as in table stylesheets) altogether and formatted things with td and th. Unfortunately, I still have the same result in the PDF, so the issue has to do with merged cells generally, not with merged cells not playing nicely with table stylesheets.

[GregStenhouse]

As you have probably found by now, HTML tables are quite complicated. Regarding column styles, things can get very messy if you start adding tags to columns and rows, other than basic size references. I would create a custom cell class (under td in your stylesheet). From Flare you can select a single cell, or whole row or column and set the style to that cell class (right click>Cell Content Style)

Also, I do believe LTinker's approach is the correct one, I'm 93.5% sure ditching the table stylesheet and simplifying things will fix your merge cells issue. Some thoughts:
1) make sure your table style is defintely gone from the topic (open as text and delete the reference at the top)
2) if you have styled the table using plain old table, th and td tags, then make sure your table doesn't have a class (right click>Table Class). If you want to keep the table class (e.g. 'Default'), you may need to style things under table.Default, table.Default th, and table.Default td
3) try adding height:auto in a few areas (row, cell, table) to make the table resizes itself correctly

Good luck!

Cheers
Greg