Table Pagination

[stman]

FM9, XP

My document has several figure-then-table pairs. Currently, I have all the table anchors in the figure paragraphs. This forces each table to be on the same page as (or at least begin on the same page as) its corresponding figure. I would rather have the table flow to the next page if it fits well, so I changed the table tag from starting "Anywhere" to "Float", as described in the user guide, and clicked Update All.

This seemed fine until I encountered a figure, followed by some text that is supposed to come after the table, and then the table at the top of the next page. What "Float" did was allow some text in between the figure and the table, which in my case is a no-no because it breaks the figure-then-table pair sequence.

How to remedy this?

I read in this forum that a best practice is to put tables in their own para tag. While that sounds like a good idea in that it would separate the tables from the figures, what happens is that I get tables that start on a new page but with space above. This space is due to the table starting on the line below the anchor. This doesn’t look good, as a table on a new page should start at the very top, which is what "Float" allows, but that creates the text between problem described above.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Arnis Gubins]

To get rid of the gap at the top of the page when a table is in its own anchoring paragraph, you need to do the following. For the anchoring paratag, set the Space Below to be a negative value equal to your body line spacing, e.g. -12pt. Then for in your table format, set the tables Space Above to be the same negative value used for the paratag's space below, e.g. -12pt. This forces the table to "back up" over top of the anchoring paratag.

[stman]

OK, thanks. This negative values method worked. Only thing is now I have "dirty" partags and tabletags. So I suppose I'll have to create a new partag to hold tables, having a negative space below value, and re-format my tabletag with the corresponding space above.

Not ideal, but it's a workaround. Also, the anchor becomes burried and impossible to see, though it can be selected by pressing Shift+Arrow. If there are other solutions out there, I'd love to hear them. Basically it's this: Allow tables to align with the top of a page withtout letting any other text flow above it, which can happen if you float the table. Yieks, in my case, the text that moved before the table (on the previous page) was a heading!

[CShute]

We have used the anchoring paragraph tag method with great success, but instead of using the negative line spacing, we use a very small point size for the font (2 or 3 points) and a 0.0 Line Space. Your Table Tag is then set for 0.0 Spacing Above. This leaves only a small space above the table, which is generally not enough to notice in most cases.

[stman]

Yup, another flavour of the solution above. Thanks.