Table not continuing to next page and overlapping itself

[rachelt80106874]

I'm working on a table that it several pages long and it so far has not been an issue. I tried to add more rows to the table but instead of continuing on to the next page, it began overlapping itself. It also began adding extra rows in a row already created, so the lines are overlapping what I have written in the column. How do I solve these issues? I already tried setting it up to Autoconnect but it didn't work.

[jaggedpeak]

I recall (vaguely) that I had that happen to me some time ago (Frame 7 or 8?).

Don't know why it happened, but if you need this 'fixed' right away, I'd suggest saving the existing doc under a different name, open the original, remove the offending table, then create a new table.

Populate one row of the table with test content.

Copy and paste that row repeatedly until the table breaks across to the next page (yay!) or duplicates the problem (boo!).

• If the problem does not occur again, then it would imply the issue is with the actual content *in* the original table. Easiest solution then is to add the content to the new table *fresh* (you can copy/paste content from each cell, but use Paste Special > Text.
• If the problem *does* occur with the new table, then it would seem the problem is with the document itself. (I had that happen in the past.) Final solution in that case was to create a new doc from scratch, copy and paste in content as straight text from the original, apply formatting.

I *do* recall that (again this is in an older version of Frame) I encountered same/similar problems when some of the content in the table was conditionalized.

[Barb Binder]

I already tried setting it up to Autoconnect but it didn't work.

I'd guess it is an auto-connect issue. Do you have disconnected pages in the file? These days, most of us just need to use Flow A, automatically set to auto-connect, to flow text continuously through the file. I run into a lot of people who don't understand how easy it is to add text to the middle of a file (just start typing, paste or import) and instead use Special > Add Disconnect Pages without any understanding of how that impacts the flow.

[rachelt80106874]

I was able to get a new page but the table will not continue to the next page. Instead, the added rows jump to the top of the last page, overlapping the already existing rows and content. This table is several pages long and I only reached an issue at the very end of the page.

[Barb Binder]

Did you check the flow tags on both pages? Are they set to auto-connect?

[Lynne A. Price]

Rachel,

   By any chance, are you trying to create a row that is too tall to fit on a single page? FM does not split tall rows across pages and its attempt to squeeze content into a space that is too small can look strange. (I believe this design makes sense. If a table has multiple columns and one of them is tall, it's not clear whether the other columns should be duplicated on successive pages or whether they should also split and if so where. Let the user explicitly identify how to distribute tall material over success pages by creating separate rows for each page.)

   I don't know whether the situation jaggedpeak describes pertains to your table or if it is the same problem I encountered long ago. I had a table with some conditional rows. When I changed show/hide settings, some of the rows repeated. I believe it was at one of the FrameMaker Chautauquas (I think the last one was in 2008) that someone described a technique that worked for me. While removing format overrides did not correct the situation, rehyphenating it did. The process was to use Edit > Spelling Checker to bring up the Spelling Checker, click the Dictionaries button, click the Rehyphenate radio button, and click OK. Rehyphenating caused FM to reexamine every line and page break and that corrected my particular document.

   --Lynne

[Winfried Reng]

If you add more paragraphs after the table anchor and these create new pages, then the autoconnect settings are fine.

I had encountered similar issues a while back with earlier FrameMaker versions. (Now I have FM 2015.)

Which version do you use?

Did you install all available updates?

I do not remember exactly, what I did. What I would try (additionally to the rehyphenation):

• Do a MIF wash (save as MIF, open the MIF and save as regular FM file).
• Copy the content of the file into a new file.
• Copy only the table into a new file.
• Import all formats and get rid of format/layout overrides.
• Get rid of manual page breaks.
• Add empty paragraphs before your table to change the position of the single rows and see, if this changes anything.
• Add empty paragraphs in a table cell to see, if this pushes the overlapping rows to the next page.
• Extend the height of the main text frame. Does this change the overlap?

This is only to find the cause. You do not have to keep these changes.

[TraceyH66 · Accepted solution]

I just had the same problem with overlapping tables and figured out that my text frame was set to two columns. Once I changed it to one column, the overlapping table contents went to the next page as I wanted!

[zogdog]

That solved it for me.  Thank you

[TraceyH66]

You’re welcome - so glad it helped!

Tracey Hoover

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