[comp.text] troff 2 column question

shirriff@sprite.berkeley.edu (Ken Shirriff) (06/29/91)

I'm using troff with me macros to format text in 2 columns (by using .2c).
My problem is that I have tables wider than 1 column, so I want them to
go across both columns:
    text  text
    text  text
    big_table
    text  text
Does anyone know how to do this?  I tried switching to 1 column mode
for the table, but that totally mangled everything.

Thanks for any help,
Ken Shirriff			shirriff@sprite.Berkeley.EDU

shirriff@sprite.berkeley.edu (Ken Shirriff) (07/01/91)

In article <1991Jun28.192204.14014@agate.berkeley.edu> shirriff@sprite.berkeley.edu (Ken Shirriff) writes:
>I'm using troff with me macros to format text in 2 columns (by using .2c).
>My problem is that I have tables wider than 1 column

In case anyone is interested, I found a relatively simple way to do this:
Put the table inside a keep.  Set the line length to the 2 column width
at the beginning (e.g. ".ll 7i") of the keep.  Restore the line length to
1 column width at the end.
The keep will automagically appear at the top or bottom of the page,
formatted across both columns correctly.

Thanks to those who helped me,
Ken Shirriff			shirriff@sprite.Berkeley.EDU