Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!chinet!les
From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Tables using WordPerfect 5.0
Message-ID: <8842@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 3 Jul 89 15:01:45 GMT
References: <176@mother.dde.uucp> <7243@ecsvax.UUCP> <5430@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <105@prodix.liu.se> <1454@lzfme.att.com> <106@prodix.liu.se>
Reply-To: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 31

In article <106@prodix.liu.se> jian@prodix.liu.se (Jian Hu) writes:

>In WP5.0 I define a paired style (Alt-F8) in which I use Courier as the base 
>font, and set line space to single. Then I can draw the tables inside the 
>style as usual. What ever happens outside the style will not affect the 
>tables. I must say I have no idea how MS WORD works. I`d like to know the 
>difference. But don`t flame me.

In Word, formatting is attached to the different objects of text (characters,
paragraphs, divisions), thus there is no need to pair the styles nor to turn
off any commands that don't apply to the next object.  Borders are part of
paragraph formatting, as is the tab setting which can contain vertical lines.
Thus, the procedure is:
Pick a font (proportional is ok).
Set the tab stops with vertical lines so the largest text fits and columns
are alligned as desired (right/left/decimal/centered).
Set the paragraph border type you want, and any other formatting (left or
right indent, line spacing, etc.).
Save this formatting as a style (by giving it a name in the stylesheet).
Subsequently you can import tabbed text or directly from a lotus worksheet,
attach this style and print.  In practice, you would probably have at least
two styles, one with centered titles for a header and another for the
alligned columns of data.  When two bordered paragraphs with identical
widths are printed they are connected with a horizontal line to separate
them.  Note that since the borders and verticals are part of the paragraph
formatting, they expand to fit the amount of text that you have.  In WP,
I have been able to draw similar looking tables using the graphic lines,
but I have to calculate the positioning myself.
The above is for Word 4.0 - I don't know how much has changed in 5.0.

Les Mikesell