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Participant
September 9, 2008
Question

Help - Table Rule question

  • September 9, 2008
  • 3 replies
  • 432 views
When a table spans multiple pages, the Table Designer has a check box selection for "Draw Bottom Ruling on Last Sheet Only" which works well. I also need to "Draw Top Ruling on First Sheet Only". Is there a simple way to do this? Because the top ruling is on the heading cells the Custom Cell Ruling changes all pages of the table not just the first.
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    3 replies

    Participant
    December 17, 2008
    I am having the same issue...need a "Draw Top Ruling on First Sheet Only" checkbox due to a very stubborn and antiquated customer requirement. Their suggestion was to open the ruling of the header row which also opens the ruling on the continued page header. Then manually draw a line using the Graphic Line tool at the top of the table to give the appearance of a closed ruling. My issue was that anytime they decide to add/delete content the graphic line is not anchored to the table therefore needs to be moved anytime the spacing in the text changes. Given a 1200 page document this can be very time consuming.

    I tried opening the ruling on my header row, nserting a new row above my header row, then changing the row format to a maximum of 0.02 which created a very thin row with closed ruling. However FM is automatically repeating this row on the continued page as well.

    I tried Thomas' suggestion of creating a new single row table just above the table, but was unable to insert a new table in between the Table Title and the actual table.

    Any suggestions? Thanks for your help in advance.
    Participating Frequently
    September 10, 2008
    Another possible solution is to define the format of the paragraph which contains the table's anchor with the Advanced Frame Below Paragraph property that uses a graphic frame on the reference page that contains the horizontal line.

    One problem with this approach is that you can't adjust the line's width for different tables - all instances of the paragraph format use the same reference page frame. Lines in anchored frames preceding the table can be individually adjusted.

    HTH

    Peter Gold
    KnowHow ProServices
    Known Participant
    September 9, 2008
    You have to "fool" FM a bit to make this look the way you want.
    Make your table without the top ruling in the heading cells.
    Then add an extra "top ruling" just above the table, either by
    using a tight anchored frame with a line in it, or a specially
    designed table with a very "thin" single row with the ruling you want.

    You also need to tweak the space above/below settings to make
    the frame/table sit just above the "real" table.

    If you use a table title above the table you may have to redesign
    that or place the table title outside the table, or in the small extra
    table above the real table.

    --
    /Thomas Michanek