Hi all,
I have a problem which I can't think of a good way to solve. I realize that
I am perhaps approaching this problem incorrectly, so I hope someone can
point me in the right direction.
Suppose that I have an arbitrary series of paragraphs in my source file,
containing an arbitrary amount of content:
<para>This is some content.</para>
<para>This is more content.</para>
<para>This is even more content.</para>
<para>This is a longer amount of content.</para>
Now, suppose that I want to format this source in an FO table with a single
row of cells. I want the table to have a fixed height--say, 2 inches--so
that the table never grows higher than 2 inches. I might do this by
placing block-containers within the table cells, giving them height
attributes. Then, I distribute my content among the table cells
accordingly:
<fo:table>
<fo:table-column column-number="1"/>
<fo:table-column column-number="2"/>
<fo:table-body>
<fo:table-row>
<fo:table-cell>
<fo:block-container height="2in">
<fo:block>This is some content.</fo:block>
<fo:block>This is more content.</fo:block>
<fo:block>This is even more content.</fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
</fo:table-cell>
<fo:table-cell>
<fo:block-container height="2in">
<fo:block>This is a longer amount of content.</fo:block>
</fo:block-container>
</fo:table-cell>
</fo:table-row>
</fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
The problem, however, is that the source file can contain any number of
paragraphs of various lengths, and this will not be known until processing
time. Since I never want my table exceed 2 inches in height, I may need to
add more columns as needed to get additional cells. The idea here is that
the first cell will accommodate 2-inches-worth of content, then whatever
overflows will spill into the next cell, which will in turn accommodate 2
inches of content, etc., and this will continue until all content is
displayed.
I'd like a stylesheet to automatically handle this. It will determine how
much content there is, how many table columns are needed, and distribute the
content accordingly. However, this seems rather difficult to do, since the
stylesheet has no way of knowing what the final print output will look like,
how large the fonts will be, etc.
I might be able to do something with string lengths. Calculate the length
of each paragraph, calculate the capacity of a table cell, and output the
paragraphs in table cells where they fit. But this would be based on
character counts only, which hold no bearing on the final print output when
a variable-width font is used; i.e., if the string "abcde" has a length of
"5", that doesn't tell me anything about how much physical space the text
"abcde" will occupy when printed in Helvetica font at size 12pt.
Does what I'm getting at make sense? I hope I am being clear about my
problem; let me know if I am not.
Thanks,
Colin
