Splitting tables across a page break: FM 8

[Les Smalley]

The table variables (table sheet or table continuation) are designed to work in those parts of a table that are automatically repeated when the table breaks across pages: the Table Title, Header and Footer rows.  You inset the variable on the first page (the only place in the document where you can edit content of these items) and they work as advertised
The table sheet shows on every page enumerating which of how many total pieces you're viewing, while the continuation variable only shows as a non-breaking space (if you display text symbols) on the first page but expands on subsequent pages to its text definition.
As you note, it's not possible in stock FM to get the effect of "continued" as an item for all segments of a table except the last one, Frame just isn't designed that way. 
Helen mentions that the heading are duplicated, that indicates to me they are in a heading row.  You could add another heading row (and maybe straddle the two columns and even suppress the top and side ruling lines) and have "continued" display in that for the additional pieces. Admittedly that's not quite the desired design, but seems as close as FM gets out of the box and before you start looking at tools like FrameScript.
– Les

--- On Thu, 3/17/11, Steve Rickaby <srickaby at wordmongers.demon.co.uk> wrote:
At 20:16 +1300 17/3/11, Helen Borrie wrote:

>That is what I wanted but it seems there's not a way to do it.  My table template doesn't have a "title row".  It has a table caption and then goes right into the table, 2 cols with a column heading for each.  It is breaking correctly, insofar as it observes the 2-orphan rule and also dups the headings on the second sheet.  Just doesn't seem to be a way to put a conditional "extraneous" row there.

As I see it, you wanted a '...continued' line to be displayed *after* the last row of a broken table on a page. Afaik there is no way to do this in unstructured FrameMaker other than manually inserting text, with the problems that will give you if text flows.

What you can do, as has been mentioned here already, is to use the table continuation variable. FrameMaker will then display the text of the variable in the running table titles that echo the title into which you insert it, i.e. not at the point at which the table is broken, but in the table title row(s) that follow it. This only works if your table has one or more title rows.

To use the variable, set its text to what you want ('contd.', 'continued...', whatever), and insert it after the appropriate text in the table title on the first page on which the table occurs. Note the FrameMaker *only* displays the variable on continuation titles, so it will not be displayed in the title row where you insert it. This looks like a bug when you first use it, but is not.

If your table style does not have one or more title rows, I don't think you can use the table continuation variable.

In theory you could put your 'continued' line in a footer on a new master page, and then trigger that master page from a para tag in your table, but that wouldn't be able to discriminate between tables that cross page boundaries and those that didn't without the intervention of something like FrameScript, so I'm stumped there. Maybe someone more ingenious than me might think of a way to make this work.

-- 
Steve
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