I am creating a data-merge document in InDesign.
There are various tables that I've created which only show as many rows as there is actual data in the field, through some creative table and cell styles.
Now I've been asked to only have an entirely separate table only show if there is information in any of those fields.
I'm at a total loss. With the way the current structure is set up, I can cause it to not display any text, but it still shows empty header cells and one line of empty row cells.
Pre-DataMerge, with the data fields
Post-Datamerge, with the resulting empty cells
Any creative ideas to hide that table? I was thinking there might be a way to hide the entire text field, if not the table. Maybe a script? I tried one that deletes blank tables, but that didn't seem to work after the data-merge was run.
I am not sure you can get that level of processing with InDesign datamerge. You could think of a script to post remove those tables or use a dedicated plugin such as Easycatalog that can take care of such empty items natively.
Related
I'm responsible for remediating a PDF that has been generated by a third-party, proprietary system for which I have no access to the layout or design. The goal is to pass the adobe acrobat DC accessibility checker before publication.
Some of the tables in the PDF span multiple pages horizontally (i.e. with a page break at column 4 of 7). Thus far, I have designated each piece of text content as a "Cell" and grouped those into a "Table Row" tag and defined each header and sub-header as a "Table Header Cell".
However, Acrobat DC seems to get confused as to the relative size and spacing of each table element. It is creating phantom column headers and rearranging or combining rows in order to fit the appearance of a more standard layout PER PAGE. But since I need one cohesive table to span TWO PAGES, this is breaking my accessibility.
Depending on how I nest my table elements, I get a table layout like one of the two examples below:
Example when including blank cells for multi-column header rows
Example when defining the column span of multi-colum header rows as "7"
As you can see, the layout is not uniform and does not pass regularity checks. Plus, as I add more rows with several blank cells, the table editor produces an error that reads:
"Unknown Table Structure Encountered"
The only way I have managed to remove this error, is to exclude the bolded main-section sub-headers from the tag structure entirely, but I cannot just leave them as untagged content and pass the checker.
Please help.
Signed up just to comment to
Kevin, thanks for replying. Because of the malformed grid, I cannot even click on the cells on Page 2 in order to associate headers. Is there a way to define table structure without using the Table Editor mode? – Glamador Apr 3 at 12:27
but don't have the rep yet to do so:
Glamador - Knowing it can't help you half a year ago but might in the future: I encountered this in a document this week and figured out the "Why" and how to get the Table Editor back, but not the "Easiest/best way to solve" the tagging in Acrobat. This issue is denying you Table Editor is with the table header (TH) cell you created that spans multiple pages.
So if you set a table header cell to something like Row Span: 7, and 3 of those are on the second page Acrobat will give you the "Unknown table structure encountered. Please retag this table using the Reading Order Tool to possibly fix the problem." error any time you try to use the Table Editor on the table that has that [table header cell with a multi-page row span/I'm not working with but assume column span too].
To get your Table Editor use back (not solving the tagging of accessibility, but to quit getting that error on your table,):
Go to your tags
Create a new empty Table Header Cell
Drag the content displayed in the tag from the problem TH to your new TH
Delete the [multiple page row/column spanning, but now empty] problem TH
Repeat if you did this in multiple TH in the same table
You can now use Table Editor again
Note: Because you can't use the Table Editor once these problem headers have been created you can't use it to see which TH's you have set to span multiple pages, or see those row/column spans, so you're going to have to just look at your document if you went through tagging and are going back and checking later and figure out which are the likely problem headers to replace. If you create that header span again in the table that goes across multiple pages you'll be unable to use the Table Editor again until you delete that tag with the page spanning issue.
I haven't found if you can combine TH Row Span settings with IDs/Associated Header Cell IDs and have the user software identify both, so I've been doing the tedious ID association on large but simple tables as my "It's tagged correctly" option, but unfortunately it isn't nearly as fast and easy as Row Spans.
You can edit the tag's object properties by right-clicking on the tag and then you can add an ID there if it doesn't already have one. Be sure each data cell is associated with a header cell. PAC's screen reader preview will also give a good view of the layout to help you get everything associated correctly.
I have an HTML data table that I am trying to make accessible. It works well enough with NVDA and Jaws. But the context of the data is such that it makes more sense to be read column by column rather than row by row as screen readers default to.
Is there a way to make sure the table is read column by column?
You don’t have to do anything, except marking it up correctly (i.e., what the headers are, and possibly what their scope is).
Just like sighted users don’t read the whole content strictly from left-to-right, top-to-bottom, screen reader users don’t let the page read out to them from the beginning to the end -- all users scan the content and jump on the page.
Inside a table, screen readers typically allow moving from cell to cell, to beginnings and ends of columns and rows, etc. See for example the commands for reading tables with JAWS.
If you think it’s not easily understood how the data is organized, consider adding a description in the caption element, e.g., something like "The first row gives the dates, each column contains the data for a day".
In several notes applications, instead of handling related data as separate documents, if the size of the data is small (less than the 32k limit), I'll make several multi valued fields and display it in what I call a "List Panel". It's a table where each column displays one multi-value field. Since fielda(1) goes with fieldb(1) that goes with fieldc(1) there is a concept of rows. (I did a similar thing in my auditing routine discussed here )
It is always assumed that each field has exactly the same number of elements.
All the multi-value fields are then stored on the single document. This avoids several coding conventions that made my eyes bleed like having date changed, who changed it, new value fields for each field we wanted to audit. Another thing that this kept to a minimum was having to provide multiple fields for the same thing that locked you into a limit. Taxrate1, Taxrate2, Taxrate3, etc...
In my "Listpanel" the first column is a vertical checkbox. (One for each element in my lists) This is so I can select one item to bring up and edit, or select multiple values to delete "rows" or apply some kind of mass change to them.
What would be the best way to handle this under xPages to get this functionality? I tried making a table but am having the devil of a time to get the checkboxes to line up with their corresponding data items.
Views and dojo-grids seem to assume we're using a document for each row.....
This TableWalker may provide what you want http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/Tutorial-Introduction-to-XPages-Exercise-23
It was created when XPages was all very new, so it's SSJS rather than Java. But if you're comfortable wiith Java, converting it probably won't be a challenge.
You could use a repeat control to display the values and build a table using the table row tags in the repeat. You would want to calculate the id of the checkbox to be able to take an action on that selected row. The repeat var would be just one of your multi-value fields and you use the index of the repeat to get the value for that row from the other multi-value fields.
I'm automating a word document in vb.net. My problem is I need a table within another table to repeat the first row. Is there any way to do this?
The table's textwrap is set to none, and the first row is the only one that has the repeat has header property set.
I CAN'T take the table out of it's containing table. This solution is not an option.
This has nothing to do with the fact that the document is automated too.
Using word 2010.
I just did a quick test with Word 2010.
I created a table, and checked "repeat as header row at the top of each page".
Sure enough, that worked.
Then I created another table, and cut/pasted the first one into it.
The header was not repeated in the Word UI, although the property remained set.
I had a quick look around for properties which might affect the behaviour of nested tables, but couldn't see any.
Then I googled "word nested table repeat header row", which returns quite a few relevant results.
Conclusion: you can't make a header row in a nested table repeat on subsequent pages. Tricks like putting it inside a content control didn't seem to work either.
I'm filling in a Word template with data that's been collected from user input. In particular a (variable) number of documents is chosen, and information about each document fills a row of a table.
I've bookmarked several items in the template and successfully filled information in the header from my macro, but the table I'm not so sure with. I bookmarked the first cell and tried tabbing (with Chr(9)) through, and also tried passing an array. (In the template the table has only a first row. Usually tabbing past the last column creates an additional row.)
I can retieve cell contents with
Word.Application.ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(3, 1).Range.Text
but can't write to the any cell except the first, where I placed a bookmark.
Can anyone offer a possible solution to populate the table?
To populate table, use this code
ActiveDocument.Tables(1).Cell(1, 1).Range.Text = "Blah Blah"
This will write to the first cell in the first table. Use a loop to fill the rest of the cells.
I would also recommend see this link.
Topic: Automating Word Tables for Data Insertion and Extraction
Link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa537149%28v=office.11%29.aspx#Y1254
Extract:
Summary: Learn how to automate the creation and formatting of tables in Word. Get information about optimizing performance, populating a table with data, formatting table structure, linking table data, and extracting data from a table. (25 printed pages)
I've actually ran into a similar problem using Access to automate filling out a Word table template. I found that if I opened the template in Word prior to running the VBA script, then the Word document is successfully filled out with the table information. My code looks similar to yours as far as adding to it by row. Because the number of fields to be transferred to the form is dynamic it didn't seem like bookmarks for each section would work. If you have any update, I'd be happy to hear of a different way to resolve this.