Text direction

Nothing is perfect! This is where you can post your ideas and wishes for functions you'd like to see in Help & Manual. Current version only please (H&M7).

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

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Ga Bowen
Posts: 324
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 5:05 pm

Text direction

Unread post by Ga Bowen »

I find that H&M doesn't fit text in tables very well when converting to pdf.

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I would like to change the text direction in tables. I would like the text to move into 4 directions (0, 90, 180, 270 degrees).
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Svetlana Akulova
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2014 12:12 pm
Location: Russia

Re: Text direction

Unread post by Svetlana Akulova »

Oh, it's a pity that there is still no solution to this problem... :(
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Tim Green
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Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
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Re: Text direction

Unread post by Tim Green »

Text rotation is planned for the next major version of Help+Manual. 8)

That being said, the "fitting to tables" problem shown in the original posting is actually at least partially a different issue. Tables in Help+Manual are originally HTML-style rather than Word-style. What this means is that they are not static, like Word tables. They are primarily designed to fit in the kind of adjustable-width windows that you encounter in web pages. When you produce a PDF or a Word document, you are really producing a paper printout, on paper with fixed dimensions and fixed margins. A table that works fine in a web page that can expand to accommodate it won't work in a narrow piece of paper with restrictive margins unless you design the table so that it can adjust to fit.

That means that all of the columns must be able to fit between the margins and still look OK, otherwise nothing will work. And to make the fit work, one or more of the columns must have adjustable width and no fixed-width content (i.e. no large images or non-wrapping text) so that they can shrink or expand to enable the entire table to fit between the margins. If this isn't possible Help+Manual simply makes ALL the columns adjustable width to try to fit the table onto the page somehow, and the results are rarely attractive... :roll:

This topic on managing column widths in tables in Help+Manual explains the strategies you can use:

https://helpandmanual.com/help/index.ht ... widths.htm
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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