Tables

Nikolai Grigoriev

Yes: <fo:table absolute-position="absolute" left="1in" top="2in">

Nikolai Grigoriev

<fo:table-cell keep-together.within-page="always">
     ...
</fo:table-cell>
	

should keep your table cells from splitting on page boundaries.

Nikolai Grigoriev

> 3. There is an amendment certificate within the frontmatter which is just
a
> simple table without any data in it (is filled in by hand by owner of
> manual). I cannot seem to get the row height to apply (keep getting
default
> height based on selected font)  if there is no data in the cells. Is there
> a way to force the row height to be applied?

<fo:table-row height="X"> 

is the right syntax for it. If it does not work, ask the supplier of your formatter.

Nikolai Grigoriev

> 4. I cant seem to find a way to centre tables. I can centre the text 
> within a table, but not the table itself. I have tried using the
text-align
> attribute on the surrounding fo:block element and also on the table
> element, but this does not work - Am I missing something?

There's no such option as to centre tables in XSL FO. What you can do instead is to specify start-indent and/or end-indent on the table, to offset it from the right/from the left. If your formatter supports expressions, you can express it this way:

<fo:table width="[X]" start-indent="(100% - [X]) div 2">

This should center your table.... but see the next question! Only that one can be used for an auto-width table

Eliot Kimber

Put the table in a block with text-align="center". This requires that you have a fixed width on the table.

To vertically center anything you need a block-container with display-align="center".

Ken Holman

The way to centre a <table> is to put it in a <table-and-caption> and use text-align="center". A working example is below.

<table-and-caption text-align="center">
   <table border="solid" border-collapse="collapse" table-layout="fixed">
     <table-column column-width="2cm"/>
     <table-column column-width="2cm"/>
     <table-body>
       <table-row>
         <table-cell><block>a</block></table-cell>
         <table-cell><block>b</block></table-cell>
       </table-row>
     </table-body>
   </table>
</table-and-caption>

If you are dealing with a fixed width table, then there is another approach you could follow that is a bit cumbersome:

   <table border="solid" border-collapse="collapse" table-layout="fixed"
          start-indent="( 100% - 4cm ) div 2">
     <table-column column-width="2cm"/>
     <table-column column-width="2cm"/>
     <table-body start-indent="0pt">
       <table-row>
         <table-cell><block>a</block></table-cell>
         <table-cell><block>b</block></table-cell>
       </table-row>
     </table-body>
   </table>

... but you need to know the size of the table before-hand. See how I take the difference between the entire width (100%) and the table width (4cm) and divide that difference by 2 to get how much belongs on the left. The end-indent isn't needed because of the fixed table width.

Note that I had to "undo" the start-indent= at the table-body, otherwise inheritance would have applied that indent to every cell's content.

David Tolpin

table headers are repeated on subsequent pages by default. The behaviour is controlled by attribute 'table-omit-header-at-break'.

Joshua

Is there a way to make a fo:table-cell span 2 columns?

Max Froumentin

is probably what you want.

Srini

I use the following property within fo:block inside fo:table-cell. hyphenate="true" It splits the words and inserts a hyphen character.

Ken Holman

You can put the second block into a footnote and introduce an empty block after your first block with an empty footnote citation inline and your second block into the footnote body.

Remember (and I sound like a broken record here) ... don't get hung up on the names of the constructs. These are layout constructs you can use to achieve the desired layout regardless of the source of the information being laid out. Even though you aren't working with footnotes, your comment "should reside always on the bottom of the page" should bring to mind that the footnote construct is a construct that performs this particular kind of layout.

Of course the caveat in this case is that if you also have footnotes then I think you are out of luck.

<page-sequence master-reference="frame">

<static-content flow-name="xsl-region-after">
   <block text-align="center"><page-number/></block>
</static-content>

<flow flow-name="frame-body" font-size="40pt">
   <block space-after="20pt">This is a test</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>
   <block>Blocks of the first group</block>

   <block>
     <footnote>
       <inline/>
       <footnote-body>
         <block>Blocks of the second group</block>
         <block>Blocks of the second group</block>
         <block>Blocks of the second group</block>
         <block>Blocks of the second group</block>
         <block>Blocks of the second group</block>
       </footnote-body>
     </footnote>
   </block>

</flow>

</page-sequence>

Ken Holman

Use display-align="after" for the cell ... see the example below.

Two steps: (1) - only turn on the border for the character (by using an inline), not for the block (2) - optionally use line-height="1" to remove any leading on the line, though the leading may be useful for separation since the inline has prevented the leading from having the background colour. I've added this to the example below as well.

   <table border="solid" border-collapse="collapse">
     <table-column column-width="5cm"/>
     <table-column column-width="5cm"/>
     <table-column column-width="1cm"/>
     <table-column column-width="1cm"/>
     <table-column column-width="1cm"/>
     <table-body>
       <table-cell border="solid">
         <block>
           This is a cell with a long sentence in it.
         </block>
       </table-cell>
       <table-cell display-align="after" border="solid">
         <block>
           This is short.
         </block>
       </table-cell>
       <table-cell border="solid">
         <block><inline background="cyan">X</inline></block>
       </table-cell>
       <table-cell border="solid">
         <block line-height="1"><inline 
	background="cyan">X</inline></block>
       </table-cell>
       <table-cell border="solid">
         <block background="cyan">X</block>
       </table-cell>
     </table-body>
   </table>

Jeni Tennison

If your XML is organised like this (i.e. sorted so that the last cell in the table is the last DESCRIPTION_ITEM in the DESCRIPTION_TABLE), then it's not too difficult to get a count of the columns and rows, actually -- just look at col and row attributes on the last DESCRIPTION_ITEM within the DESCRIPTION_TABLE. The number of columns is:

Then it's *much* easier than you think. fo:table doesn't require you to group your cells into rows -- instead, you can use the starts-row property on those cells that start a row.

First, the DESCRIPTION_TABLE maps onto your fo:table:

<xsl:template match="DESCRIPTION_TABLE">
  <fo:table>
    <fo:table-body>
      ...
    </fo:table-body>
  </fo:table>
</xsl:template>

Then you iterate over the DESCRIPTION_ITEMs in order to create the cells. The DESCRIPTION_ITEMs need to be sorted by row, and by column within the row, as follows:

<xsl:template match="DESCRIPTION_TABLE">
  <fo:table>
    <fo:table-body>
      <xsl:for-each select="DESCRIPTION_ITEM">
        <xsl:sort select="@row" data-type="number" />
        <xsl:sort select="@col" data-type="number" />
        <fo:cell>
          ...
          <xsl:apply-templates />
        </fo:cell>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </fo:table-body>
  </fo:table>
</xsl:template>

and if the DESCRIPTION_ITEM starts a row (i.e. its column number is 0) then you add a 'starts-row' attribute with the value 'true':

<xsl:template match="DESCRIPTION_TABLE">
  <fo:table>
    <fo:table-body>
      <xsl:for-each select="DESCRIPTION_ITEM">
        <xsl:sort select="@row" data-type="number" />
        <xsl:sort select="@col" data-type="number" />
        <fo:cell>
          <xsl:if test="@col = 0">
            <xsl:attribute name="starts-row">true</xsl:attribute>
          </xsl:if>
          <xsl:apply-templates />
        </fo:cell>
      </xsl:for-each>
    </fo:table-body>
  </fo:table>
</xsl:template>

If you were having to group the cells into rows then it would be a bit more complicated -- you'd have to use a grouping method. It would also be trickier if you had missing cells.

David Tolpin

border on fo:table sets border on the table as a whole. To set cell borders, specify borders on table-cell elements.

you also have got to specify the border-color and style, e.g.:

Ken Holman

According to 7.9.4 the initial value for hyphenate= is "false" ... try setting it to "true" to see if your formatter's hyphenation algorithm gives you acceptable results.

Oleg Tkachenko

Use

<fo:table-row keep-together="always"...

This will keep the row on the same page

Klaas Bals

This is not possible in XSL-FO right now. I have seen an alternative which might lead to the same visual result. You could create a background image that contains rectangles in grey and light grey, where each rectangle corresponds to a column. If you then place a table on that page with that background, you get the visual effect that the background of the columns are alternating grey and light grey. The background image of course has the same size for all pages, and if you don't specify borders on the table, you cat get what you want. Vertical borders are visually 'replaced' by the background image. The only limitation is that the horizontal borders can not be used to delimit the rows. This however could be replaced by setting the background color of the cells alternating for each row.

Paul Grosso

Set text-align="." on all the relevant fo:table-cell's.

See the <string> value of text-align at W3C

Ken Holman

If you insert the zero-width space character (using &#x200b; or &#8203;) periodically through the string, then it will break at this character where necessary and any others where it is not necessary will not be seen.

I used this in very long URL strings, adding this character after every slash. Where it isn't needed it isn't seen and where there needs to be a break it happens right after the slash.

David Tolpin adds

Turn hyphenation off for that part of the text and don't use an FO processor that breaks line when it is not asked to.

W. Eliot Kimber

If you control the vertical size of the rows, then you can use the trick where you put the table footer in static content for the region-after and use markers to set and get the footer on a per table basis.

The key to this is realizing that the edge regions can overlap the body region--so you define your page so the overlap provides enough space for the table footer. On pages without tables, the overlap space is occupied by an empty block (or just use an absolutely-positioned block-container to position the "real" page footer content correctly.

If you cannot control the vertical size of the rows, then this approach will not work because you won't be able to position the footer relative to the table (or rather, the table relative to the footer) reliably.

You can use this technique to generate a "table continued on next page" sort of message, as long as you don't necessarily want that message to always be immediately below the bottom of the last row on the page.

David Tolpin

Yes, it is true.

No, it is not so. block-container with block-progression-dimension is a workaround which may work in some cases, and will not in others (when the cell is neihboring another one with row-span!=1). The correct way to limit the height of a cell is to specify block-progression-dimension on the table-cell itself. The specification allows to do so by explicitely listing block-progression-dimension on fo:table-cell.

There is an error in the specification in that both height and block-progression-dimension are listed for table-cell. This makes no sense since height is mapped to block-progression-dimension in XSL FO.

XSL FO allows it and it is the right way to specify cells with fixed height.

Eliot Kimber

FO defines "auto" layout which has the same semantics as HTML tables. That is, the user agent figures out how wide to make the columns based on whatever heuristic it chooses to apply.

You can also use a "fixed" layout that uses proportional column width calculation using the proportional-column-width() FO expression function.

Typically, you define a constant width for those columns that need to accomodate a narrow data value or need to accodate data of known size and use proportional for the rest, e.g.:

<fo:table layout="fixed" width="100%">
   <fo:table-column column-width="0.5in"/>
   <fo:table-column column-width="proportional-column-width(1)"/>
   <fo:table-column column-width="proportional-column-width(1)"/>
   <fo:table-column column-width="proportional-column-width(1)"/>
   <fo:table-column column-width="proportional-column-width(1)"/>

This defines a table of 5 columns, the first one being 1/2 inch wide, the rest each being 1/4 of the remaining width.

Victor Vishnyakov

Try

<fo:table-cell >
        <fo:block text-align="right"> 
        <!-- text-align="right" is used here
                for right alignment --!>
		<fo:external-graphic height="1.5in"" src="url(blah.jpg)" /> 
	</fo:block> 
</fo:table-cell>

W. Eliot Kimber

I've posted to the Innodata Isogen Web site a simple Saxon extension that lets you estimate the formatted length of a string. This lets you do this kind of simple copy fitting, such as making sure a list accomodates the longest term in a definition list.

See: Isogen website

You may have to register and create a user ID, for which I appologize--I have no influence on our marketing policies.

Here's the sample XSLT script that should have been in the package. You do need the jar file in your classpath but the real key is the "xmlns:inno_iso=" attribute below: this binds the namespace prefix for the extension functions to the Java class that implements the functions according to the Saxon 6.x extension API.

---- cut here ----
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
      xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
      xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"
   xmlns:inno_iso="java:com.innodata_isogen.saxon.InnodataSaxonExtensions"
 >
<!--======================================
     Copyright (c) 2004 Innodata Isogen, All Rights Reserved

     This XSLT transform demonstrates teh use of the InnodataSaxonExtensions
     Java library. It may be used, copied, or modified without restriction.

     Run this style sheet using Saxon from the xslt directory like so:

       java com.icl.saxon.StyleSheet -cp
../build/inno_iso_saxon_extensions.jar;../lib/saxon.jar
rendered_text_width_test.xml rendered_text_width_test_fo.xsl > test.fo

     $Revision: 1.4 $
     ======================================-->

<xsl:param name="base-font-size" select="'12pt'"/> <xsl:param
name="base-font-family" select="'Times New Roman'"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
   <fo:root
       font-size="{$base-font-size}"
       font-family="{$base-font-family}"
       line-height="120%"
   >
     <xsl:call-template name="generate-layout-master-set"/>
   	<xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:root>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="/*">
   <fo:page-sequence master-reference="basepage">
     <fo:static-content flow-name="xsl-region-after">
       <fo:block
           text-align="center"
       >
         <xsl:text>-</xsl:text>
         <fo:page-number/>
         <xsl:text>-</xsl:text>
       </fo:block>
     </fo:static-content>
     <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body"
     >
       <xsl:apply-templates/>
     </fo:flow>
   </fo:page-sequence>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="section">
   <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="/*/title">
   <fo:block
       font-size="16pt"
       font-weight="bold"
       font-family="sans-serif"
       space-after="1.5em"
     ><xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="section/title">
   <fo:block
       font-size="14pt"
       font-weight="bold"
       space-before="12pt"
       space-after="1em"
     ><xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="deflist">
   <xsl:variable name="label_width">
     <xsl:call-template name="get-longest-item-length">
       <xsl:with-param name="items" select="dlitem/term"/>
       <xsl:with-param name="curr_width" select="0"/>
       <xsl:with-param name="font-family" select="'Times New Roman'"/>
       <xsl:with-param name="font-weight" select="'bold'"/>
       <xsl:with-param name="font-size" select="12"/>
     </xsl:call-template>
   </xsl:variable>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="title"/>
   <fo:list-block
       provisional-distance-between-starts="{$label_width}"
       provisional-label-separation="1pt"
   >
     <xsl:apply-templates select="dlitem"/>
   </fo:list-block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="dlitem">
   <fo:list-item
       space-before="6pt"
   >
     <xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:list-item>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="dlitem/term">
   <fo:list-item-label end-indent="label-end()">
     <fo:block
         font-weight="bold"
       ><xsl:apply-templates/>
     </fo:block>
   </fo:list-item-label>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="dlitem/definition">
   <fo:list-item-body start-indent="body-start()">
     <xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:list-item-body>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="deflist/title">
   <fo:block
       space-before="6pt"
       font-weight="bold"
       keep-with-next="always"
     ><xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:block>
</xsl:template>


<xsl:template match="para">
   <fo:block
       space-before="6pt"
     ><xsl:apply-templates/>
   </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="font_list">
   <fo:block
     space-before="6pt"
     linefeed-treatment="preserve"
   >
     <xsl:value-of select="inno_iso:listJavaSystemFonts()"/>
   </fo:block>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="show_text_length">
   <xsl:variable name="font-family">
     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="string(@font-family) != ''">
         <xsl:value-of select="@font-family"/>
       </xsl:when>
       <xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of
select="$base-font-family"/></xsl:otherwise>
     </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:variable>
   <xsl:variable name="font-weight">
     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="string(@font-weight) != ''">
         <xsl:value-of select="@font-weight"/>
       </xsl:when>
       <xsl:otherwise>normal</xsl:otherwise>
     </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:variable>
   <xsl:variable name="font-size">
     <xsl:choose>
       <xsl:when test="string(@font-size) != ''">
         <xsl:value-of select="@font-size"/>
       </xsl:when>
       <xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of
select="$base-font-size"/></xsl:otherwise>
     </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:variable>
   <xsl:variable name="text">
     <xsl:apply-templates mode="text-only"/>
   </xsl:variable>
   <fo:inline
       border-style="solid"
       border-color="blue"
       border-width="0.5pt"
       font-size="{$font-size}"
       font-family="{$font-family}"
       font-weight="{$font-weight}"
     ><xsl:apply-templates
   /></fo:inline>
   <xsl:text> rendered length=</xsl:text
   ><xsl:value-of
       select="inno_iso:renderedTextLength($text, $font-family,
$font-weight, $font-size)"
   /><xsl:text>pt, font used: </xsl:text>
   <xsl:value-of select="inno_iso:renderedTextFontName($font-family,
$font-weight, $font-size)"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="point_scale">
   <xsl:call-template name="pica-ruler">
     <xsl:with-param name="picas" select="18"/>
   </xsl:call-template>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="get-longest-item-length">
   <!-- Given a list of nodes, process each one in text-only mode and return
the width of the
        longest as determined by the renderedTextLength() extension
function.

        When calling for the first time, specify a non-zero value for the
curr_width
        parameter to establish a minimum length to be returned.
     -->
   <xsl:param name="items"/><!-- List of elements to process, e.g. 
option_item/option -->
   <xsl:param name="curr_width"/><!-- Longest width we have so far -->
   <xsl:param name="font-family"/>
   <xsl:param name="font-weight"/>
   <xsl:param name="font-size"/>
   <xsl:variable name="text">
     <xsl:apply-templates select="$items[1]" mode="text-only"/>
   </xsl:variable>
   <xsl:variable name="cand_width"
         select="inno_iso:renderedTextLength(string($text),
                                             'NokiaSans',
                                             'bold',
                                             $font-size)"
   />
   <xsl:choose>
     <xsl:when test="count($items) = 0">
       <xsl:value-of select="concat($curr_width, 'pt')"/>
     </xsl:when>
     <xsl:when test="$curr_width > $cand_width">
       <xsl:call-template name="get-longest-item-length">
         <xsl:with-param name="items" select="$items[position() > 1]"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="curr_width" select="$curr_width"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="font-family" select="$font-family"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="font-weight" select="$font-weight"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="font-size" select="$font-size"/>
       </xsl:call-template>
     </xsl:when>
     <xsl:otherwise>
       <xsl:call-template name="get-longest-item-length">
         <xsl:with-param name="items" select="$items[position() > 1]"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="curr_width" select="$cand_width"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="font-family" select="$font-family"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="font-weight" select="$font-weight"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="font-size" select="$font-size"/>
       </xsl:call-template>
     </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>


<xsl:template name="generate-layout-master-set">
   <fo:layout-master-set>
     <fo:simple-page-master master-name="basepage"
         page-height="11in"
         page-width="8.5in">
       <fo:region-body
         margin-left="1in"
         margin-right="1in"
         margin-top="1in"
         margin-bottom="1in"
       />
       <fo:region-after
           extent="0.75in"
       />
     </fo:simple-page-master>
   </fo:layout-master-set>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="pica-ruler">
   <xsl:param name="picas" select="6"/>
   <fo:table
       table-layout="fixed"
   >
     <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-table-columns">
       <xsl:with-param name="picas" select="$picas"/>
     </xsl:call-template>
     <fo:table-body
         margin-left="0pt"
         start-indent="0pt"
         font-size="6pt"
          line-height="100%"
       >
       <fo:table-row>
         <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-top-row-cells">
           <xsl:with-param name="max-value" select="$picas * 12"/>
         </xsl:call-template>
       </fo:table-row>
       <fo:table-row height="0.5em">
         <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-mid-row-cells">
           <xsl:with-param name="picas" select="$picas"/>
         </xsl:call-template>
       </fo:table-row>
       <fo:table-row height="0.5em">
         <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-bottom-row-cells">
           <xsl:with-param name="picas" select="$picas"/>
         </xsl:call-template>
       </fo:table-row>
     </fo:table-body>
   </fo:table>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="pr-generate-table-columns">
   <!-- Generate one pica's worth of table column specs -->
   <xsl:param name="picas" select="0"/>
   <xsl:choose>
     <xsl:when test="$picas &lt;= 0 or $picas = 'NaN'"/>
     <xsl:otherwise>
       <fo:table-column
           column-width="4pt"/>
       <fo:table-column
           column-width="4pt"/>
       <fo:table-column
           column-width="4pt"/>
       <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-table-columns">
         <xsl:with-param name="picas" select="$picas - 1"/>
       </xsl:call-template>
     </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="pr-generate-top-row-cells">
   <!-- Generate one pica's worth of table cells for the first row -->
   <xsl:param name="max-value" select="0"/>
   <xsl:param name="picas-rendered" select="0"/>
   <xsl:choose>
     <xsl:when test="$picas-rendered >= $max-value"/><!-- Need to handle 
case where picas is not a multiple of 3 -->
     <xsl:otherwise>
       <fo:table-cell
         number-columns-spanned="3"
       >
         <fo:block><xsl:value-of 
select="$picas-rendered"/></fo:block><!-- 3 divisions of 4 points each -->
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
         number-columns-spanned="3"
       >
         <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="$picas-rendered + (4 * 
3)"/></fo:block><!-- 3 divisions of 4 points each -->
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
         number-columns-spanned="3"
       >
         <fo:block><xsl:value-of select="$picas-rendered + ((4 * 3) * 
2)"/></fo:block><!-- 3 divisions of 4 points each -->
       </fo:table-cell>
       <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-top-row-cells">
         <xsl:with-param name="picas-rendered" select="$picas-rendered + 
(4 * 3) * 3"/>
         <xsl:with-param name="max-value" select="$max-value"/>
       </xsl:call-template>
     </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template name="pr-generate-mid-row-cells">
   <!-- Generate one pica's worth of table cells for the middle row -->
   <xsl:param name="picas" select="0"/>
   <xsl:choose>
     <xsl:when test="$picas &lt;= 0 or string($picas) = 'NaN'"/><!-- 
Need to handle case where picas is not a multiple of 3 -->
     <xsl:otherwise>
         <fo:table-cell
             number-columns-spanned="3"
             border-start-style="solid"
             border-start-width="0.5pt"
             border-start-color="blue">
           <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
         </fo:table-cell>
         <fo:table-cell
             number-columns-spanned="3"
             border-start-style="solid"
             border-start-width="0.5pt"
             border-start-color="blue">
           <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
         </fo:table-cell>
         <fo:table-cell
             number-columns-spanned="3"
             border-start-style="solid"
             border-start-width="0.5pt"
             border-start-color="blue">
           <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
         </fo:table-cell>
       <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-mid-row-cells">
         <xsl:with-param name="picas" select="$picas - 3"/>
       </xsl:call-template>
     </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>


<xsl:template name="pr-generate-bottom-row-cells">
   <!-- Generate one pica's worth of table cells for the middle row -->
   <xsl:param name="picas" select="0"/>
   <xsl:choose>
     <xsl:when test="$picas &lt;= 0 or string($picas) = 'NaN'"/><!-- 
Need to handle case where picas is not a multiple of 3 -->
     <xsl:otherwise>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue">
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <fo:table-cell
           border-start-style="solid"
           border-start-width="0.5pt"
           border-start-color="blue"
       >
         <fo:block>&#x200B;</fo:block>
       </fo:table-cell>
       <xsl:call-template name="pr-generate-bottom-row-cells">
         <xsl:with-param name="picas" select="$picas - 3"/>
       </xsl:call-template>
     </xsl:otherwise>
   </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
-- 

Tokushige Kobayashi

You may use text-align property.

<fo:table-and-caption space-before="1em" text-align="right">

Please check the following samples: antennahouse.com

Michael Sulyaev

The fo:table-header formatting object is used to contain the content of the table header. Normally it is repeated right after a page break or column break crosses the table body.

<fo:table>
 <fo:table-header>
  <fo:table-row>
   <fo:table-cell>
    <fo:block> this is a cell in table-header </fo:block>
   </fo:table-cell>
   <!-- more cells in this row -->
  </fo:table-row>
  <!-- more rows in table-header -->
 </fo:table-header>
 <fo:table-body>
  . . . . . . .

Alexander Peshkov

1. According to XSL-FO specification proportional-column-width() can be used only for table with fixed layout.

2. Main reason that you get unexpected result is width="100%" specified on the outer table. As recommended by CSS2 formatter first determines actual column widths and if resulting width is less then required (100% is your case) - distributes the rest of the space evenly among columns. In the second sample this leads to additional space in the second column thus breaking centering of "SHORT" table.

If you remove width="100%" from the outer table and specify table-layout="fixed" you'll get what you want. Please find attached modified version of your sample (I've removed some unnecessary stuff).

Ken Holman

The construct I usually use to allocate space in the block-progression direction is <block-container>. Using height= on <table-cell> or <table-row> also works.

     <flow flow-name="frame-body" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
       <fo:block>This is a test</fo:block>
<fo:table width="130mm" border="2pt solid red"
background-color="rgb-icc(0,0,153,cmyk,1,0.79,0,0)">
     <fo:table-body>
         <fo:table-row>
             <fo:table-cell>
               <fo:block-container height="25mm">
                 <fo:block font-family="verdana"
color="rgb-icc(255,255,255,cmyk,0,0,0,0)" font-size="31pt">
                         XX
                 </fo:block>
               </fo:block-container>
             </fo:table-cell>
         </fo:table-row>
     </fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
       <fo:block>This is a test</fo:block>
<fo:table width="130mm" border="2pt solid red"
background-color="rgb-icc(0,0,153,cmyk,1,0.79,0,0)">
     <fo:table-body>
         <fo:table-row>
             <fo:table-cell height="25mm">

                 <fo:block font-family="verdana"
color="rgb-icc(255,255,255,cmyk,0,0,0,0)" font-size="31pt">
                         XX
                 </fo:block>

             </fo:table-cell>
         </fo:table-row>
     </fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
       <fo:block>This is a test</fo:block>
<fo:table width="130mm" border="2pt solid red"
background-color="rgb-icc(0,0,153,cmyk,1,0.79,0,0)">
     <fo:table-body>
         <fo:table-row height="25mm">
             <fo:table-cell>
                 <fo:block font-family="verdana"
color="rgb-icc(255,255,255,cmyk,0,0,0,0)" font-size="31pt">
                         XX
                 </fo:block>
             </fo:table-cell>
         </fo:table-row>
     </fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
       <fo:block>This is a test</fo:block>
<fo:table width="130mm"  height="25mm" border="2pt solid red"
background-color="rgb-icc(0,0,153,cmyk,1,0.79,0,0)">
     <fo:table-body>
         <fo:table-row>
             <fo:table-cell>
                 <fo:block font-family="verdana"
color="rgb-icc(255,255,255,cmyk,0,0,0,0)" font-size="31pt">
                         XX
                 </fo:block>
             </fo:table-cell>
         </fo:table-row>
     </fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
       <fo:block>This is a test</fo:block>
<fo:table width="130mm"  block-progression-dimension="25mm" 
border="2pt solid red"
background-color="rgb-icc(0,0,153,cmyk,1,0.79,0,0)">
     <fo:table-body>
         <fo:table-row>
             <fo:table-cell>
                 <fo:block font-family="verdana"
color="rgb-icc(255,255,255,cmyk,0,0,0,0)" font-size="31pt">
                         XX
                 </fo:block>
             </fo:table-cell>
         </fo:table-row>
     </fo:table-body>
</fo:table>
       <fo:block>This is a test</fo:block>

Interestingly, I'm getting different background results from different formatters when using height on <table>, but they agree that the cell size is not the table size.

The XSL specification builds on the CSS2 specification but according to a note in 6.7.3 "The CSS2 specification explicitly does not specify what the behavior should be if there is a mismatch between an explicitly specified table block-progression-dimension and the block-progression-dimensions of the content." Probably why I'm seeing different results in different processors.

Section 6.7.3 does explicitly say that the height is based on the "block-progression-dimension" trait, which defaults to "auto", which means the height is "auto". Reading 7.14.1 it would seem that height= does not play into the table's height, yet I'm getting identical results when I replace height= with block-progression-dimension= so I'm not sure what is in play here. My guess is that a table's height is always the height of its content (though I don't see that in section 6.7.3).

Ken Holman

Remember that all lengths have .conditionality, that the width of a table border is a length, and the default conditionality is "discard". What you are seeing is what would be expected.

Try setting the .conditionality property of your table border width to "retain" so that the border width isn't discarded at the end of a reference area.

Jeremias Maerki

You don't, at least no directly. The overflow property doesn't apply to fo:table-cell directly since that FO doesn't generate a viewport, only a reference area. If you want to clip cell contents you put a block-container with the desired extents as a direct child of the cell and you set the overflow property there.

Ken Holman

reference-orientation isn't supposed to work on table-cell because that construct is only used to group content, not to create any areas itself.

reference-orientation isn't supposed to work on block because that construct creates a normal area not a reference area.

You need to use a block-container to get what you want:

  <page-sequence master-reference="frame">
    <flow flow-name="frame-body" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">
      <block>This is a test</block>
      <table>
        <table-body>
          <table-cell><block>Hello</block></table-cell>
          <table-cell>
            <block-container reference-orientation="90">
              <block>Hello</block>
            </block-container>
          </table-cell>
          <table-cell><block>Hello</block></table-cell>
        </table-body>
      </table>
    </flow>
  </page-sequence>