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From: lmui@ora.UUCP (Linda Mui)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: ditroff - leading chars and tables
Message-ID: <1453@ora.UUCP>
Date: 14 Apr 89 22:11:21 GMT
Organization: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Newton, MA
Lines: 30

In response to a recent request for help in generating troff leader
characters within tables:

I don't recommend fiddling with .lc or .tc within tbl.
Instead, use \l and specify the leader there.  If the text you want
within the table is:
		Name______________________
		__________________________
		Address___________________
		Code Number_______________
Then if the width is meant to be 4 inches, do something like: 
		Name\l'4i-\w'Name'u_'
		\l'4i_'
		Address\l'4i-\w'Address'u_'
		Code Number\l'4i-\w'Code Number'u_'
If you're not familiar with these, "\l" draws a line of the specified 
length with the given character (if any -- underscore (_), in this case). 
"\w" captures the width of the specified string, to ensure that the
lines will be justified.

If these lines need to appear within an already existing table, .T&
will have to be used to redefine the format line to span all columns
but the first (e.g., "l s s.").  

This is hairy, but will pass through tbl unscathed.
-- 
Val Quercia (617) 354-5800 
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks
90 Sherman Street, Cambridge, MA 02140
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