Typesetting Tables on UNIX

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. . . You're a Pair of Lunatics . . .

James Gosling

Here is a detailed description of the chapter contents from Typesetting Tables on the UNIX System. Click on the navigation bars to see individual chapter descriptions.

	Introduction to Tables		Format Modifiers
	Getting Started		Table Options
	Column Formats		TBL With Formatters
	Arranging Table Data		TBL With Macros

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
TO TABLES

Tables are a common and well understood way of displaying information in printed documents. Data in tables are presented as regular, easily scanned, two-dimensional arrays of rows and columns instead of long streams of narrative. Chapter 1 is an overview of the concepts of tabular layout and leads to the basics of TBL and TROFF.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 1:

	Short History Of TROFF		Formatting Tables The Hard Way
	Short History Of TBL		Requirements For Tabular Layout

CHAPTER 2

GETTING STARTED BUILDING TABLES

Chapter 2 introduces the most basic ideas of using TBL to describe how data can be laid out in rows and columns, with headers, and horizontal lines to separate rows of data.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 2:

	TBL With Other Preprocessors		TBL With TROFF
	Numerically Aligned Data		Adding A Table Header with Spanned Columns
	Centering a Table		Enclosing The Table In A Box
	Concepts Of Table Layout		Drawing A Rule Across The Table
	Practical Table Layout		Multiple Format And Data Sections
	Column Titles with Multiple Format Specifications		Troubleshooting
	Changing Point Size In A Column		Tables Don't Have To Be Tables

CHAPTER 3

DESCRIBING COLUMN FORMATS

Column formats—also called format specifications—are the part of the table that specify the layout of the rows and columns of data. Data is what you format. Column formats describe how to format the data. Chapter 3 describes each column format in detail.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 3:

	Left, right, centered columns		Horizontally and vertically spanned columns
	Numerical and alphabetic columns		Horizontal and vertical rules

CHAPTER 4

ARRANGING DATA IN YOUR TABLE

Data to be formatted in your table is perhaps the most important part of the process of formatting your tables. While Chapter 3 described column formats that specify how data is aligned in the columns and rows of the table, Chapter 4 discusses in detail the choices for entering the actual data into the table.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 4:

	Regular Textual Data		Table rules, column rules, and short column rules
	TROFF Constructs In Data		Repeated characters and leaders
	Blank lines in table data		Vertically spanned rows and Text Blocks

CHAPTER 5

OPTIONAL MODIFIERS FOR FORMAT SPECIFICATIONS

Chapter 5 describes format modifiers or qualifiers that modify the basic column formats. Modifications include change point size, change font, and width of column.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 5:

	Font and Point Size for Columns		Equal Width Columns
	Vertical Spacing and Space between columns		Zero Width and Staggered Columns

CHAPTER 6

OPTIONS AFFECTING THE ENTIRE TABLE

Chapter 6 covers options that control how the table appears. This chapter describes the notion of the options section—the part of the table that controls the appearance of the entire table.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 6:

	Center and Expand Table		Tab Characters and Equation Delimiters
	Box, Double Box, and All Box		Thickness of Rules

CHAPTER 7

TBL WITH OTHER DOCUMENT PROCESSORS

TBL and TROFF between them can perform quite difficult feats of formatting to lay out material in tabular form. Chapter 7 extends the formatting capabilities by using TBL in conjunction with other TROFF preprocessors.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 7:

	Equations in Tables		Equations and Pictures in Tables
	Pictures in Tables		Tables in Tables

CHAPTER 8

TBL WITH MACRO PACKAGES

You probably won't use TBL and TROFF on their own but will generally use one of the popular TROFF macro packages as the “style sheets” for formatting your document. There are probably thousands of local “home grown” macro packages at various installations but three well-known macro packages are in common use at UNIX sites world wide. The common macro packages are the –ms macros, the –me macros, and the –mm macros. Each has its good points, its deficiencies, and its proponents. Chapter 8 describes the ways in which TBL interacts with the macro packages.

Here's a partial list of topics in Chapter 8:

	`.TS` and `.TE` Macros		Tables and Footnotes
	Keeping Table on a Page		Multi Page Tables