tabs in table cells, eh wot?

[Stuart Rogers]

On 05/02/2010 2:13 PM, Ken Poshedly wrote:
> Group,
>
> I've check the FrameMaker help feature, Googled for it, and poked all
> over the Reference page and paragraph formatting menus for this one,
> but with no luck so far.
>
> The parts book I'm working on includes nearly 150 lists (tables), all
> formatted the same, with the line art graphic on the left page and
> the parts list opposite it on the right facing page. Each parts list
> table consists of four columns labeled Item No., Part No.,
> Description and Qty. (Standard stuff, eh?)
>
> For appearance sake, we choose to turn off all of the table ruling
> lines and use a light grey (10 percent black) shading for the table
> header row.
>
> Because some of the text descriptions in the Description column are
> very short, I'd like to have a dot leader follow the wording in each
> description cell so it looks like this:
>
> Item No.   Part No.               Description
> Qty
>
> 1             3245676          Assembly, main platform . . . . . . .
> . . 2
>
> (The spacing may not be quite right in this example, but surely, you
> get the idea.)
>
> So the question is whether or not a following tab can automatically
> follow the text in each cell of the Description column.
>
> Apparently, it must be added manually (according to the Format>
> Paragraphs>  Paragraph Designer>  tab stops feature).
>
> I was hoping that there would be something on the Reference page that
> could be adapted, but apparently not.
>


Since you've turned off the ruling lines, you could just as easily put 
the Description and Qty into a single column with a pgf tag defined with 
a right-aligned tab with leader dots.  Type the Description content, 
Esc, tab, type the Qty content.

An alternative design that I've seen recommended in a research paper is 
to shade alternate rows of the table similarly to what you've done with 
your heading row (which obviously you would change in some way).  The 
idea is that ruling lines are bad because they interrupt the scanning 
pattern of the eye, but subtle shading provides an unobtrusive and 
helpful guide.  With that approach, you'd not need the leader dots and 
could stick with your four-column layout.  (And not have to remember the 
Esc keystroke before the tab keystroke!)

Best regards,


-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

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