Tables on a grid

Tables on a grid

[F. Miller Maley]

In my document, for aesthetic reasons I would like the text in my tables
to line up on the same baseline grid used by the running text.  I have
said \setupblank[fixed,line] and have been careful to make such things
as section headings an integral number of lines, so everything else is
lining up nicely; tables are the last hurdle.

If I use \halign to make tables, everything works OK; I get the expected
amount of space above and below the table and between the table and its
caption (having said \setupfloats[before=\blank,after=\blank] and
\setupcaptions[inbetween=\blank]).  But if I use \starttable...\stoptable,
I get unexpected amounts of space above the table and above the
caption, and I don't know how to control this.  Also, I have tried using
\bTABLE...\eTABLE.  It's clear that \setupTABLE can be given various options
accepted by \framed to alter the spacing, but I'm having trouble
understanding how it works.  So far nothing I've tried has had the desired
effect.

Questions:
1. What is the simplest way to get the table text to line up on the grid?
2. Is there documentation in English for the old-style (TaBlE-based)
   table macros in ConTeXt?  (Last time I investigated this, it seemed
   that my choices were to pay $69 to PCTeX to buy the TaBlE macros
   with their documentation, or to read Section 14 of the ConTeXt reference
   manual in Dutch.)

By the way, \setupcaptions[align=left] seems to align captions at the
right, while \setupcaptions[align=right] aligns them at the left.  Perhaps
this is fixed in a newer version of the macros?  I have 2001.2.27.

-- Miller Maley

Re: Tables on a grid

[Hans Hagen]

At 02:53 PM 12/1/2001 -0500, F. Miller Maley wrote:
>In my document, for aesthetic reasons I would like the text in my tables
>to line up on the same baseline grid used by the running text.  I have
>said \setupblank[fixed,line] and have been careful to make such things
>as section headings an integral number of lines, so everything else is
>lining up nicely; tables are the last hurdle.
>
>If I use \halign to make tables, everything works OK; I get the expected
>amount of space above and below the table and between the table and its
>caption (having said \setupfloats[before=\blank,after=\blank] and
>\setupcaptions[inbetween=\blank]).  But if I use \starttable...\stoptable,
>I get unexpected amounts of space above the table and above the
>caption, and I don't know how to control this.  Also, I have tried using
>\bTABLE...\eTABLE.  It's clear that \setupTABLE can be given various options
>accepted by \framed to alter the spacing, but I'm having trouble
>understanding how it works.  So far nothing I've tried has had the desired
>effect.
>
>Questions:
>1. What is the simplest way to get the table text to line up on the grid?
>2. Is there documentation in English for the old-style (TaBlE-based)
>    table macros in ConTeXt?  (Last time I investigated this, it seemed
>    that my choices were to pay $69 to PCTeX to buy the TaBlE macros
>    with their documentation, or to read Section 14 of the ConTeXt reference
>    manual in Dutch.)
>
>By the way, \setupcaptions[align=left] seems to align captions at the
>right, while \setupcaptions[align=right] aligns them at the left.  Perhaps
>this is fixed in a newer version of the macros?  I have 2001.2.27.

As soon as you add rules to a table, the dimensions of a line exceed the 
lineheight; the tabulate mechanism is less sensitive for this 
(\starttabulate ... \stoptabulate).

You should be aware of the fact that tex has its own opinion about spacing 
around rules. You can let context make the best of ruled material by saying:

\startlinecorrection % [blank]
\framed{...}
\stoplinecorrection

but only for 'boxed' material; some mechanisms have this build in.

Hans
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