Table Adjustment

[GridLox]

Would the powers that be please add the following to the NeoOffice wish list.

The facility, in Writer, to create tables in which the Table>Autofit>Distribute Rows Equally option (or something similar … e.g. the Optimize toolbar) allows the following:

When the perimeter (the edges) of a table are altered manually (click & drag), all cells within the new dimensions can be adjusted - within the new boundary. Thus the largest cell(s) would be reduced in height and all smaller cells would have their height proportionally increased, so that all cells would have the same height … that distance being established by the height between top and bottom edges, divided by the number of rows - each row height being set accordingly. Thus if one wants a given number of rows, all of the same height, to fit on the one page, one does not have to personally determine the distance between the top and bottom of the desired table (outer) dimensions, calculate the mean height for the required number of rows, set one of them to that height, then use either Autofit or Optimize to render all other rows to the same height … which seems to be the workaround being suggested. At least one problem with this proposed workaround is that, if the initial calculation is wrong and the adjusted row height (to which all others then conform) is too high, the table will spill onto the next page(s). To readjust such an 'oversize' table would then require selecting all rows and by trial and error reduce them to fit. Of course this could be done from the outset … simply guess how high the rows need to be to fit. Although, I'm sure that after a little while one would be come quite good at it.

If I'm a good boy and say my prayers before going to bed, every night, perhaps the fairy god-parent will add this wish to their list.

[pluby]

Just to make sure that I understand your feature request, I will try to summarize it this way: make the "Distribute Rows Evenly" action behave like the existing "Distribute Columns Evenly" action. The existing "Distribute Columns Evenly" action sets column width to the existing table width divided by the number of columns in the table.

Is that a good summary of the new feature that you are requesting?

Patrick

[GridLox]

Yes, Patrick that puts it well. Mind you, I haven't tried the "distribute columns evenly" … didn't get that far. Thanks for your patience.

[pluby]

I took a very quick look at NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code and from what I can see, it appears that implementing this feature will not be trivial and will probably require at least as much development work as implementing native text highlighting required.

Given the development work required for this new feature, we need at least 20 NeoOffice donors to post that they also want this new feature before I work on implementing this new feature request. We need this many donors to post for us to feel comfortable that this new feature will generate enough donations to recoup the development costs.

In the meantime, I have found a potential workaround. It is not ideal, but hopefully it is a better workaround than what you are using now. The workaround is to do the following steps:

1. Select the entire table

2. Control-click on the table and in the popup menu that appears, select the Row :: Height menu

3. In the dialog that appears, uncheck the "Fit to size" checkbox, set the height to the desired table height divided by the number of rows and press the OK button

4. If the height of the table is not what you want, adjust the height slightly higher or lower by repeating step 3

Patrick