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Tina-Louise.Allaire
Inspiring
January 17, 2023
Answered

Positioning tables imported from Word

  • January 17, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 1792 views

Hi,

I imported a Word document with lots of tables into unstructured FrameMaker 2020, and the tables are not aligning properly. The are positioned outside the page parameters. The tables have landed near the middle of the pages and the right sides are not where they should be. I don't know how to fix this.

 

I would appreciate any advice/help for this issue.

 

Thank you. 

 

 

 

 

 

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Barb Binder

    I believe when I changed settings in the Table Designer I chjose Retain Overrides, The version of FM is 16.0.5 1096. Plesae see the fullscreen attached.

    Thank you,

     

    Cheers,

    Elizabeth 


    Hi Elizabeth:

     

    So that table appears to have the quarter inch left indent assigned. Isn't that what you want?

     

    I'm also a little confused by the overall formatting. This layout would typically handled in a sidehead frame, and as per Dave, our table headings are normally adding to the top of the tables (it's a Table Designer option), and then the tables are anchored to the previous paragraph (empty or not—up to you).

     

    ~Barb

    3 replies

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 18, 2023

    Hi @Tina-Louise.Allaire:

     

    You have not yet shared a screenshot with text symbols visible, but I would think this comes down to the anchoring choices, which are controlled through the table designer, and the default column widths. Could you please share a screen shot so that we can see your starting point?

     

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    T
    Tina-Louise.AllaireAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 18, 2023

    Hi,

     

    Please find a screenshot attached showing the issue I'm having. BTW, this is the first time I've imported a Word file into FrameMaker.

     

    Thank you.

    Cheers,

    Elizabeth 

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 18, 2023

    Hi Elizabeth, I was hoping to see the same screenshot with the text symbols visible. That's the View > Text Symbols, which will show us where the table is anchored.

     

    Based on what you showed us, I am guessing that it is anchored at the end of the title? Click in the table and open Table Designer > Basic. Set the Alignment to left, and the Left Table Margin to 0. If that doesn't work, please post another screenshot with a text symbols visible, and with Table Designer > Basic open so that we can see your settings. 

     

    Once you get this set up you can save your table designer settings and apply it to the other tables in the document. And if you're comfortable sharing your file, I'm always happy to take a look at it. Sometimes that's the fastest way to get an answer. You can put it on a file sharing server like dropbox and post a link here (public), or click my avatar above this reply and send me a direct message with the link (private). You can delete all the content but the heading and the table first.

     

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    LinSims
    Community Expert
    LinSimsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 17, 2023

    The easiest way I've found is to literally copy the table in the Word file, paste it as TEXT into the FM file, then select it and convert it to table with the needed Table Tag applied, then tell it to make all columns equal width to fit within your margins, then fiddle with the column widths until you like how the table looks.

     

    Rick Quattro's TableCleaner plugin is useful on this last since you can use it to apply the column widths from multiple tables with the same style. The caveat, of course, is that all the tables have to be set up the same (# of columns). It can also convert body rows to heading or footer rows.

     

    If you're using FM's import from Word, you can, as I recall, assign a TableTag style to the Word tables as long as they have a style name that is used consistently. You'll still have to play with the columns widths and possibly convert body rows to heading and footing rows. Rick's plugin is good for that, too. I usually find this more trouble than I think it's worth, but your mileage may vary.

     

    I've used this on documents that are hundreds of pages long with hundreds of tables. It's tedious, but it's the fastest way I've found to handle Word tables. If someone has a better way, I'm all ears. I haven't had to do this in a while, but it would be nice to have a new trick up my sleeve.

      Two-fer
      Two-fer
      Inspiring
      January 17, 2023

      I also run FM2020 Unstructured, and I see this same issue too. I have gotten into the habit of adjusting the Word table widths down to 6.5 inches or so. It still doesn't look right in FM--I have to manually adjust the column widths, etc.--but they usually don't go off the page when I do the above. (The docs I import only have about 12 tables, so it isn't too onerous....)  Maybe someone will have a nifty work-around or a better answer! 😃

        

      Two-fer
      Two-fer
      Inspiring
      January 17, 2023

      You could also create a standard table template (or templates if you have different table types/sizes/margins) and apply it (them) to the imported tables to position them where you want them with respect to the left side of the page.

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