Table cell extend across page break

[ghazali]

I'm sure lots of people have asked for this before but... would it be possible to enable table cells to extend across page breaks? (Is this hugely difficult?)

This is the one feature of the dreaded MS Word which I miss in Mellel. I write bilingual TV scripts which often require deep table rows - 1 cell is scene description, 1 cell English narration, 1 cell Arabic narration and the three elements need to be kept next to each other in a row across the page.

[rpcameron]

Another requested feature that is perhaps a bit more fitting to your request would be an implementation of columns that allow for paragraphs to be aligned across the columns, which would be most helpful for those doing translations or similar works. (This would probably be the best way, since I believe that a table should be reserved for displaying tabular data and not as a work around to get other things to work ... just look at what a mess tables created for website designs.)

[ghazali]

That could be tricky if you have a different number of paragraphs in the same row, e.g. the scene description is three paragraphs but the related narration is just one paragraph.

I've lived through web table hell as well, but I don't think this is quite the same. I just wish to have a cell, or at least a row of cells, which extends across a page break. At the moment, I can have a row which is, say, 15cm deep providing it starts at the top of a page; but only, say, 1cm deep if it starts near the bottom of a page. I really want to write without worrying about pagination at all; that comes only when the document is ready to print out.

[rpcameron]

That could be tricky if you have a different number of paragraphs in the same row, e.g. the scene description is three paragraphs but the related narration is just one paragraph.

That's actually the point of having the columns allow a paragraph in one to be linked to a paragraph in another; this way they both will start at the same place on the page. As previously stated, this has been a feature often requested specifically for those that do translation work, or have a similar need.

[FrGeorge]

Yes, yes exactly! Not only have I needed this column behavior for translations but I prepare liturgical prayer books that need to be able to synchronize concurrent choir, deacon and priests parts in columns along with chorreographic notes (rubrics.) I used tables but they are a mess to change. The synchronized columns can also help to provide multiple views of the same texts.

[ghazali]

I think I'm getting there - but RP, how do we cope with 'rows' with different number of paragraphs in each column, eg FrGeorge's rubrics for one part of the service are two paras, but the deacon's part is four or five... do we link the first paras in the section, and then any subsequent paras just hang below them? Then when we get to the next section, again the first paras in each column are linked so they line up?

Redlers, what do you think of all this?

[rpcameron]

... do we link the first paras in the section, and then any subsequent paras just hang below them? Then when we get to the next section, again the first paras in each column are linked so they line up?

That is exactly the idea I would love to see implemented. Because of the layout nature and similarities to other requested features, I believe this feature will not make an appearance until marginalia are supported. But, I believe both are planned (didn't the Redlers comment that they were working on trying to implement marginalia?).

[thinkdeep]

Hello,

This conversation kind of confused me.

Ok, what I would like to do is to have English on the left (only), and Arabic on the right (only), in tables or columns.

I would like to be able to grab a huge piece of Arabic text (maybe like 6 pages, for example), and just drop it in the right column or table. Only problem is that the text stops at the first page! This is really annoying.

How can I get what I paste in a table or column to extend past the first page?

[Mart°n]

As Mellel’s column feature doesn’t work very well for this kind of use, you’re left to use tables for your translation work. The limitation of tables are, that one table cell can not exceed one page. As you could not workaround this limitation, you should not try to copy a huge amount of arabic text (6 pages) but a small amount of text (say, 1 page) and copy & paste that into Mellel. You could even work with smaller pieces (if this makes any sense for you) but not with larger ones.

[thinkdeep]

This is what I was dreading to hear... ;-(

I was just trying to avoid guessing how much text to put in, and then having to find where I left off, then cut and paste that, etc. etc. etc... I was hoping to just cut and paste the WHOLE text, and let the tables extend into the additional pages. Oh well...

Does anyone know if there are any plans for this kind of feature?

[jannuss]

Does anyone know if there are any plans for this kind of feature?

Improved columns/sections is on top of my wish list, but I keep getting drowned out by those demanding cross-references.

As far as I know the next version of Mellel does include cross-referencing, but not improved columns.

Janet

[bluesdance]

I do my "split screen" (in my situation I make tikkun pages and Hebrew/English translations) using tables, one row per paragraph so that each paragraph lines up. You can take out the lines later. That's really your only option. Hopefully you don't have any paragraphs that are more than a page long.