Tabular layout of information in WebHelp

[Carel Schilp]

Good morning Tim,

I want to create projects in WebHelp with the Integrated skin.

The information I want to publish requires a tabular format, but in the Help I read the following:

"Tables can be used both to arrange tabular data and as a formatting tool, in the same way as in HTML pages.
However, in preparation for responsive web design we strongly recommend that you avoid using tables for layout whenever possible, because they break responsive design."

So now I wonder, how can I create a tabular Topic layout when the use of tables is discouraged for responsive design?

I also read that you can't use tabs in HTML pages, so I'm at a loss right now.

Thanks in advance for you help with this issue.

Regards,

Carel.

[Tim Green]

Hi Carel,

You can absolutely use tables in HTML pages, it's just a little bit discouraged if you are also targeting mobile devices, because they tend to break the layout there. However, they work fine on desktop browsers and so long as they are really for tabular data and not for laying out the page then that is actually their intended purpose. You just need to be aware of what they do: They create fixed-width content, and unlike images they cannot "scale" -- they always have a fixed width.

It's a good idea to keep table width as low as possible, and to have one or more adjustable-width columns that can help the table adapt to the width of the viewing window. This is particularly important for importing to PDF and Word, where the page width is fixed. For that you need to plan the width of the table to fit within the page margins, otherwise HM will set all columns to adjustable width in an attempt to make the table fit, and the results are seldom what you want.

See this topic in the help for important information on managing table and column widths for all this:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_w ... idths.html

[Carel Schilp]

Morning Tim,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll reread the Help using the link you sent me.

Happy Holidays and until next year!


Regards,

Carel.