DITA and two different layouts for same information. One template for one column layout and another one with two columns. Despite the template, tables should spread in all columns.

Forum|Forum|20 days ago
March 5, 2026
3 replies
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DITA and FrameMaker. We have two different layouts for same information. One template for one column layout and another one with two columns. Despite the template, tables should spread in all columns. One column template works fine.

We have made a two column layout with same table style but spanned for both columns. The table is anchored in Body paragraph with format: one column. If I insert a new table, it will be formatted correctly to all columns. But if I open the converted DITA document, tables are in one column.

I added a new paragraph format in template with ‘all columns’ layout and changed the edd to use that in table anchoring paragraph style. It does, but still the table does not span in all columns.

What have I missed? Thank you in advance.

structured_framemaker

Bob_Niland

Community Expert

Is the Anchoring paragraph set to Across All Columns?
I used to use this routinely to generate PDFs in what were nominally 2-column works.

T

Tuula268312076vq3Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you, Bob. Yes, Anchoring paragraph is set to Across All Columns. I was sure this would help but something goes wrong.

frameexpert

Community Expert

Did you try this on your tables: <table pgwide=”1”>?

www.frameexpert.com

T

Tuula268312076vq3Author

Participating Frequently

Now I did and that seems to help. Thank you very, very much, now we will add the attribute to the conversion. After making sure if there are any exceptions. Great forum!

W

Winfried Reng

Community Expert

Hi,

I do not use DITA. I would assume this:

You save DITA as XML.

When you open the XML file, the table column width is automatically adapted to the column width. I do not know, where this can be activated or deactivated.

Best regards, Winfried