Gary Schnabl wrote:
Sak wrote:
Gary Schnabl wrote:
Flip a coin or have others chime in on whether we should use one
vertical alignment of table cells over another alignment OR simply
leave it as is--let the writer decide. The latter would, of course,
cause an uneven-appearing series of tables.
I think leaving it up to the individual writer would introduce an
unwelcome lack of uniformity. Personally, I think there should be an
established style.
The top alignment of one-line paragraphs makes the text somewhat
unappealing when combined with other rows of full cells (vertically).
But that's my personal opinion. The best way would be for a number of
others to visually compare the two options and choose what looks better.
Yes, I agree, a side-by-side comparison would be handy. Many short
Tips and Notes, that are only one line, usually compress the table row
well enough that there isn't a noticeable difference between whether
the Tip or Note word in the preceding column is center or top
aligned. With longer Notes of multiple lines, or even multiple
paragraphs, it can get a little weird looking though, if the "Note" or
"Tip" is floating somewhere in the middle of the cell. To me, it
causes the eye have to jump around too much for those longer Notes.
When top aligned, the reader sees the Note or Tip designation, and
then follows directly to the right to begin reading the content of the
note. At least for left-to-right reading audiences. I suppose that a
center alignment would work well for top-to-bottom reading audiences.
Anyway, that's my general thoughts on it. Once I finish up with this
project that I'm on a deadline (probably a week or so), I'd be happy
to put together a sample document with some "lorem ipsum" tables and
different alignments so that we have something to look at and decide
what looks best.
Make some Lorem comparisons for a number of examples.
The ones I usually like to change are those one-liners among mostly
multi-liners. The multis appear to be centered, although top aligned,
because they filled in almost all or all of the vertical space due to
the largest column in that row. Then the one liner cell's text is at the
top, followed by line(s) of whitespace below. The center alignment
balances out the excess vertical spacing within that cell. So, it's
largely aesthetics.
I witnessed tables used either way, though. One solution would be for
the writers to avoid using one liners and make them longer.
From this earlier discussion, I've put together a samples document for
a little side-by-side comparison. One thing to note, in the Chapter
Template itself, the Tip/Note/Caution table that appears there is center
aligned vertically. Seeing them side by side like this, I can see merit
for going either way. In the chapter I'm finishing up, Writer Guide Ch.
9, there are Tip/Note/Caution tables that are both center aligned and
top aligned, which is why I brought up the question. For now, I'm going
off the assumption that center alignment is the preferred method, since
it's in the Chapter Template already.
While I realize that content is very important, which is why Ch. 9 has
taken me so long, I'm also of the opinion that making these other types
of edits while in the document already is equally important. Hence the
reason I keep asking these types of questions. ;)
Anyway, I've uploaded the document here:
http://oooauthors.org/en/authors/userguide2/resources/feedback/table_formats.odt/download
http://tinyurl.com/6z3woe
Thanks,
Sak.
