Table and table-text flow control features for OpenOffice Writer

I've been doing some table-based layout recently, in my quick-reference cards. I got to know the table flow options real well. Here are some good solid table control features.

Text Flow tab

Get to know this one. Click in the table and choose Table > Table Properties. Click the Text Flow tab.

Break: If you want a cell to start at the top of a new page or column click in that cell, and then in this window select Break and Column or Page. Conversely, if you've got a table that starts at the top of a page or column and don't want it to, unmark the Break option.

Allow Table to Split Across Pages and Columns: You're going to have some weird layout with your longer tables if you don't let the table at least split across columns.

Allow Row to Split Across Pages and Columns: However, I think it looks a little weird, at least in some circumstances, to let the row split. So I don't mark that.

Repeat Heading: Here's how you get the first, or first and second, and so on, rows of a table to repeat on each additional page. Helps readers to know what each column of information is about.

Putting a Carriage Return Above a Table at the Top of a Page

If you've got a table at the top of a page and you want a blank line above it, just click in the upper left cell of that table and press Return.

Getting Rid of a Carriage Return Above a Table at the Top of a Page or Between Tables

Click on the line where the carriage return is and press Delete. 

Bam, the two are consecutive. Not the same table, but consecutive.

Split/Merge Options on the Table menu

Let's say you've got a long table, and you want to split it into two. Just click in the line where you want the 2nd table to being, and choose Table > Split Table.

If you've got two tables and you want them to be one, then click in the top line of the second table and choose Table > Merge Table.

If there's just one to choose from, the merging will just happen with the  table above it. If there's a table above and below, you'll get this window. Make the choice you want and click OK.

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Comments

[What is Open Office?]

Thank you, these are some great tips. You may want to disable your window manager's transparency feature when making screenshots. The transparency looks very weird when taken out of context of the rest of the screen, and is rather distracting. Other than that, great work!

[Taang Zomi]

This is a question not directly related to this topic ("Table and table-text flow control features for OpenOffice Writer") but related to the larger topic of tables. My question is:

How can I turn a table by 90 degrees in OOo Writer 3.0?

Thanks for your help.

Taang Zomi

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Broadside Tables

1. What the Chicago Manual of Style says about a broadside table:

Shapes and Dimensions

13.54 Vertical versus broadside tables. In a printed work, a vertical table is one that can be read down the page. If longer than one page, it can continue onto subsequent tables (see table 13.15). A broadside table, such as table 13.19, requires that the open book or journal be turned around; it should therefore be resorted to only if a table is too wide to fit across the page. (Note that the book or journal is turned clockwise, whether the table appears on a verso or a recto.) If possible, such a table should be recast as vertical (see 13.57). Both vertical and broadside table, if too long for one page, can continue onto following pages. If only two pages are required, these should face each other. See also 13.58. Tables to be published electronically may not be bound by the same considerations discussed in paragraphs 13.55-63. [1]

Glossary

broadside. Designed to be read or viewed normally when the publication is turned ninety degrees. In University Press practice, the left side of a broadside table or illustration is at the bottom of the page. Because most publications are longer than they are wide, broadside images are usually landscape, but not all landscape images are broadside. See also landscape. [2]

2. How to make a broadside table in OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0.1

Make a frame. Within the frame, make a table.

Click the frame. Then, format--> frame → options → text direction → right-to-left vertical

3. How can I make a broadside table with left-to-right vertical?

Click the frame. Then, format--> frame → options → text direction → right-to-left vertical

There is only right-to-left vertical.
There is no left-to-right vertical.
What should I do to make a broadside table in accord with the Chicago Manual of Style?

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Footnotes

1 The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, 15th Edition, (2003: The University of Chicago Press, Chicago) p.514

2 Ibid., p. 825

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[Taang Zomi]

Correction:

There was a format error in arrows. I hope this will read better:

2. How to make a broadside table in OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0.1

Make a frame. Within the frame, make a table.

Click the frame. Then, format --> frame --> options --> text direction --> right-to-left vertical

3. How can I make a broadside table with left-to-right vertical?

Click the frame. Then, format --> frame --> options --> text direction --> right-to-left vertical

There is only right-to-right vertical.
There is no left-to-right vertical.
What should I do to make a broadside table in accord with the Chicago Manual of Style?