[comp.text] mm macros, tbl and multiple page tables - who's zooming who?

dfh@ecsvax.UUCP (David Hinnant) (04/07/88)

I have several two column tables in a ditroff mm macro document that span 
multiple pages.  The table takes the form:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
|                        Table Title Goes Here                      |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|     Keyword          |         Definition                         |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
| a word or so here    | many words here describing the word or so  |
|                      | at the left.                               |
|                      |                                            |
| another keyword      | another keyword definition  etc. etc.      |
|                      |                                            |

Due to the table spanning several pages, I always get a keyword
portion at the bottom of the page, and then the *first line* of the
corresponding definition OVERPRINTING on the table heading (i.e. the
"Keyword   |    Definition" line) of the table on the next page.  The
table spans several (3) pages.  The problem occurs on all pages, when
tbl, ditroff, mm or whomever decides to start a new Keyword/Definition
at the bottom of a page.

First, who's zooming me? Tbl?  Ditroff? The MM macros?   I'm using
DWB 2.0, AT&T Ditroff (Profficient, actually) and /dev/ps.

Second, has anyone seen this before?  Third, other than hand-breaking
the table at page boundaries, what are my options?  Gee, I feel like 
Dallas asking Mother how to survive against the Alien...

As always, thanks in advance.


-- 
Fortune for the day: "Beware of no pr}Blems in your diks subysstem"

David Hinnant		UUCP: ...mcnc!ecsvax!dfh
h-three Systems Corp.	(919) 549-8334

kjk@pbhyf.PacBell.COM (Ken Keirnan) (04/07/88)

In article <4886@ecsvax.UUCP> dfh@ecsvax.UUCP (David Hinnant) writes:
>I have several two column tables in a ditroff mm macro document that span 
>multiple pages.  The table takes the form:
>
[ table deleted ]
>
>Due to the table spanning several pages, I always get a keyword
>portion at the bottom of the page, and then the *first line* of the
[ more stuff deleted ]


David,
	Are you using the mm ".TH" (table header) macro?  This is a "must"
if you want table headings to work spanning pages.  I won't try to duplicate
the section of the manual here, but check out the mm "technical discussion"
in the DWB documentation, section on Tables (using tbl).

					Ken Keirnan

P.S.
This problem drove one of my co-workers nearly nuts trying to generate
multi-page tables.  Fortunately, he found the appropriate manual section
on the brink and denied me the pleasure of: "Oh, did I forget to mention
the..."
-- 

Ken Keirnan -- Pacific Bell -- {ihnp4,sun,ames,pyramid}!pacbell!pbhyf!kjk
  San Ramon, California			kjk@pbhyf.PacBell.COM

romwa@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Mark Dornfeld) (04/08/88)

I almost always break up multi-page tables by hand.  This
gives me better control over the layout without too much
"domino effect" on the following pages.  This also helps
when debugging a table because you don't have to run the whole
table when making changes.


Mark T. Dornfeld
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queens Park
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
M5S 2C6

mark@utgpu!rom      - or -     romwa@utgpu