0.9 Presentation table elements  (Page 3/4)

The “mtable” element has large number of attributes and it would be difficult to use all of them. Good news is that we are using only few of them at the most. The dimensional attributes of table frame, rows and columns are largely determined by the implementation of a particular renderer. Also, the default values of key attributes are so chosen that default table architecture is suitable for most of the situations. For example, width controlling attributes “width” and “columnwidth” are set to “auto”. This means that width of the table as a whole and the columns shall be adjusted in accordance with the algorithm of the renderer, whereby they are expected to be set “as needed”. We may ofcourse set specific values whereby content in the table is expected to be wrapped around.

Assignment to table attributes follows a typical format. The reason for special mechanism arises out of the fact that we are required to set some the attributes on individual row or column. The format is simple. It is presented with a “+” sign at the end indicating that the attribute can be applied to individual rows and columns. A general format for columns would expand explained here :

(x y z)+ : It is a sequence of values separated by space. The values can be one or more (i.e. can be repeated) of x,y and z for corresponding columns. Starting from the first, the values are applied till the last column. If there are more values than required, then remaining would be discarded and if there are less than required then the last of the sequence would be repeated.

This means that a large number of attributes such as “rowalign”, “columnalign”, “columnwidth”, “rowspacing”, “columnspacing”, “rowlines” and “columnlines” can be set to individual rows and columns with the valid values as specified above.

The example here illustrates setting of “columnalign” and “rowalign” elements. Note that the impact of “columnalign” is more visible than “rowalign” element.

"mtr" table row element

$\begin{array}{l}\text{Specific attributes : \hspace{1em}}\left(\mathrm{rowalign},\mathrm{columnalign},\mathrm{denomalign},\mathrm{groupalign}\right)\end{array}$

Attribute value types

• rowalign (default : inherited) : top | bottom | center | baseline | axis
• columnalign (default : inherited): (left | center | right) +
• groupalign (default : inherited): group-alignment-list-list

Rows are drawn from top to bottom. Entries in the row can be aligned separately on individual row. This row level setting of “rowalign” attribute shall override “rowalign” attribute setting on table level via “mtable” element. The “columnalign” attribute allows specifying individual column alignments for that particular row.