Apply specific text formatting rule to individual cells in table - EDD

Question

In our Table element, we have an Attribute List to select the type of table to create (we have a number of pre-defined table structures).

One of the table structures we use is to insert notes/comments into our documents. It's a single row, 2 column, table. Currently, in the first cell, we use a specific paragraph tag to insert an appropriate graphic (Frame Above Pgf) depending on the type of note/comment. The second cell (using a different paragraph tag) contains the text for said note. I'm having trouble defaulting the paragraph tag used in the first and second cell in the table, respectively.

I have my Table and Cell elements set up as follows:

When I insert the Table element, selecting Note as the Attribute, the format rules fail on the TableType and I'm not sure why (It is entirely possible that I've got it set up wrong).

For some of our other Tables, we also need to specify a different paragraph tag for the first row of the table, and a different paragraph tag for the subsequent rows.

Lynne A. Price · Accepted Answer

Quintin,

Your EDD can certainly design one flexible table element with an attribute that whose value distinguishes special-purpose tables. Another approach is to define multiple table elements. You say that you puts notes and comments into a one-row, two-cell table. The element and attribute you describe can use the generic table element to have that formatting. However, it doesn't restrict tables that set TableType to Note to one rows or two cells. Since the first cell in that row has a graphic, I assume you don't want text there as well, which the generic table permits.

An alternative is to define another element called Note to be a Table with a table body tagged something like NoteBody. In turn, NoteBody would contain a NoteRow whose general rule is GraphicCell, Cell, thus making it invalid to insert more than two columns in the table. GraphicCell would have the general rule <EMPTY>.

As appropriate, you could define special-purpose tables for screenshots and exercises.

--Lynne

Lynne A. Price · Answer

Quintin,

Remember that a context specification that starts with an element tag tests whether the element being formatted is a child of an element with that tag. You are formatting Cell and testing the context Table[TableType = "Note"]. Hence you are testing whether a particular Cell is a a child of Table. It's not--it's a child of Row. The context specification you need is either:

Row < TableBody < Table[TableType = "Note"]

or more simply

* < Table[TableType = "Note"]

Here, the * means "any intervening elements".

--Lynne

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded