Thank you to Radu and the others who replied to my question.

I understand that the best way to create tables with grid lines everywhere is when you set both @frame, @colsep and @rowsep = "1" for the <table> element.

It can be done differently, but this is likely to be rendered correctly with every default transformation and needs less effort than having to set @colsep and @rowsep for other elements like <tgroup> or each and every <entry>.

I have adjusted my Schematron rules accordingly.

Regards,

Frank

Hi Frank,

About this question:

So perhaps, to keep my DITA data portable and to ensure they are rendered correctly with other transformations, it would be safer to also set @colsep and @rowsep to "1". But really for each <entry>? Wouldn't it be enough for <table>?

Setting the attributes on the table or tgroup will propagate the values as inherited for each table cell. So you do not need to set them individually on each cell. You only would do that if you want the table cell to have a different value of @rowsep/@colsep than the value set on the table.

Setting the attributes on the colspec will influence only the entries in that column.

Also link to CALS table specs:

https://www.oasis-open.org/specs/a502.htm

Regards,

Radu

Radu Coravu
Oxygen XML Editor

On 4/12/23 18:18, Frank Dissinger wrote:

Thank you!

Hm... These attributes were set on <table> and <tgroup> in my DITA files, but not on <entry>, and the attribute value was sometimes = "0", sometimes = "1". Nevertheless the tables rendered correctly, but perhaps only because I have set up the CSS and MiramoPDF styles to create frames for all table cells for all <table> elements. I'll have to investigate this...

So perhaps, to keep my DITA data portable and to ensure they are rendered correctly with other transformations, it would be safer to also set @colsep and @rowsep to "1". But really for each <entry>? Wouldn't it be enough for <table>?

Frank

---

Am 12.04.2023 um 16:36 schrieb Michael Boudreau:

For a CALS table, @frame="all" draws a border around all four outside edges of the table; it does not affect the interior lines. See https://dtd.nlm.nih.gov/options/OASIS/tag-library/19990315/index.html

 

To indicate a table with all the grid lines visible, CALS requires @frame="all" as well as @colsep="1" and @rowsep="1" on all <entry> elements (you can omit colsep on the rightmost cells and rowsep on the finalrow).

 

-- 

Michael R. Boudreau

Electronic Publishing Technology Manager

The University of Chicago Press

1427 E. 60^th Street

Chicago, IL 60637

www.journals.uchicago.edu

 

 

From: oXygen-user <oxygen-user-bounces@oxygenxml.com> on behalf of Frank Dissinger <frank.dissinger@cgs-oris.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2023 at 9:26 AM
To: Oxygen User Mailing List <oxygen-user@oxygenxml.com>
Subject: [oXygen-user] Understanding @colsep and @rowsep

Hi all,

 

Can someone shed some light on how the @colsep and @rowsep attributes are used for CALS tables? The information I found is not clear and detailed enough for me.

 

I understand that these attributes create separator lines for colums and rows. Do I only need these attributes when I do not set @frame="all" to create lines for particular rows or columns only?

 

For a normal CALS table with lines for all rows and columns (i.e. like a grid), is enough to set @frame="all" or do I additionally need these attributes? The code that Oxygen creates (see below) with these settings (i.e. without these attributes) ...

does not have these @colsep and @rowsep attributes, only @frame="all", and is rendered as desired with my CHM and PDF transformations.

 

I have several tables with @colsep/@rowsep="0" or ="1". These attributes may have been added by FrameMaker when I converted unstructured content to DITA. Can I safely remove all of these attributes when I just want a CALS table with row and line separators every (like a grid)?

 

Regards,

Frank

--

Frank Dissinger

Documentation Manager

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