On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 9:21 AM, Guenter Milde <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 2014-03-30, Uwe Stöhr wrote: > > Am 30.03.2014 07:57, schrieb Carsten Jahn: > > >> I didnt mean long tables but wide ones, and word, as much as I hate to > >> admit, is better in that one IMHO, as you could just drag your table > till > >> it fits, > > > That is just the opposite of the WYSIWYM concept of LyX and LaTeX. The > > concept is to let the software decide after professional rules what > > means "it fits". > > However, automatic table width is a real shortcoming of LaTeX. > Things work fine, as long as all cell entries are short one-liners. > However, > > * there is no "professional rule" for line wrapping in a column unless it > has a fixed width. > > * without looking at the output, you cannot know, whether a table fits on > the page or is too wide!!! > > * there is no support for manual line-breaks in a column without > fixed width (unless you use \shortstack in an ERT). > > * setting a fixed width requires opening a dialogue and inserting values > (if you want a fixed width for the whole table, this requires complicated > mathematical calculations as well - in this case the trial and error > method may even be faster than looking up the documentation on column > separating space etc...). > > All this is a clear distraction from concentrating on content and WWAATS > (what we are able to show) is still far from what I mean. > > I agree. Table formatting is a real issue in LaTeX (and LyX). However, the even deeper issue is that table formatting in general is really, really hard. Until not so many years ago, typesetters would charge extra for books containing many tables, precisely because they knew that extra labour would be required (they may still do it, AFAIK). Word/LibreOffice provide a so-so solution: direct inspection and adjustement of the table on screen is certainly faster that fiddling with LaTeX/TeX parameters, but the result is a "good enough" table that may be accetable for inter-office communication but it is also a far cry from a professionally typeset output. LaTeX solution is more time-intensive and certainly distracting but the final output is better (although still not perfect, unless you start fiddling with low-level formatting commands). In the end, I think we should be honest about both LaTeX's shortcomings and the difficulty of the problem. A really good looking table would always require a lot of manual work. It would nice if LaTeX/LyX provided more direct support for table formatting, but a perfect solution will be out of reach for a long long time. Stefano -- __________________________________________________ Stefano Franchi Associate Research Professor Department of Hispanic Studies Ph: +1 (979) 845-2125 Texas A&M University Fax: +1 (979) 845-6421 College Station, Texas, USA [email protected] http://stefano.cleinias.org
