Have parameters for new tables default to <unspecified>

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chrispitude
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 2:32 pm

Have parameters for new tables default to <unspecified>

Post by chrispitude »

In a fresh install of Oxygen, the following table parameters are explicitly set by default on new tables:

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Unfortunately this overrides the defaults we have in our CSS.

I don't want to force these settings to be undone in the CSS because a writer might need to set one of these parameters for a particular table. But, I think Oxygen's defaults for tables should be to leave these parameters unspecified:

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so that the CSS defaults are used, then have the writer specify them only when needed.

Has anyone else run into this?
Radu
Posts: 8991
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2004 5:18 pm

Re: Have parameters for new tables default to <unspecified>

Post by Radu »

Hi Chris,

I found an older related post:
topic15433.html?sid=1ecf289ec4151b90bb0bf1c247906b6b

by someone who seems to want the opposite, no matter what people select in the table configuration dialog the inserted table would always have rowsep, colsep and frame=all.
Maybe you can look at that post to see if my answers there help.

We have an internal issue named:
EXM-40841 More configurable parameters for DITA "Insert Table"

I added there links to both these posts.

Regards,
Radu
Radu Coravu
<oXygen/> XML Editor
http://www.oxygenxml.com
chrispitude
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 2:32 pm

Re: Have parameters for new tables default to <unspecified>

Post by chrispitude »

Hi Radu,

This topic came up in our team meetings again.

Our situation differs somewhat from the request you linked. We want a default table style applied by CSS (see here for details), but we want writers to be able to selectively override the rowsep/colsep/frame attributes.

But if Oxygen's table insertion defaults to setting these attributes, then our CSS always applies them as overrides.

I am trying to resolve the issue through education ("set everything to <unspecified> if needed") but it is proving difficult in practice.

Perhaps a solution to EXM-40841 could be for a new Preferences > ... > Table settings page where the default values for each table insertion dialog box invocation for frame/rowsep/colsep/align could be configured as <unspecified>, last-used, explicit value, etc. This would meet our needs as well as the needs of the linked discussion.
Radu
Posts: 8991
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2004 5:18 pm

Re: Have parameters for new tables default to <unspecified>

Post by Radu »

Hi Chris,

I will add your improvement ideas on the registered issue.
Maybe you can add some kind of Schematron check for cases when these attributes are specified on tables, there is this feature allowing some one to use a quick fix to ignore a certain Schematron check on a certain element: https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... fixes.html

Regards,
Radu
Radu Coravu
<oXygen/> XML Editor
http://www.oxygenxml.com
chrispitude
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 2:32 pm

Re: Have parameters for new tables default to <unspecified>

Post by chrispitude »

Hi Radu,

That feature for allowing Schematron violations to be waived is extremely cool!! I definitely need to look into that.

I also like your idea of using Schematron to (1) detect accidental table formatting overrides and offer a quick fix to revert to defaults, and (2) to allow the user to waive the check on tables with intentional formatting overrides.

These are exciting features to explore until EXM-40841 is (maybe) implemented. And even after EXM-40841 is implemented, these features can help catch and recover from (or explicitly confirm) deviations from the default table formatting.

Thanks!
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