Creating an irregularly shaped table

You can create a table containing cells of different sizes and shapes.

About this task

Tables do not have to stick to a symmetrical row-and-column layout. You can make the number of cells per row and the size of cells vary. The result is a panel containing cells of different sizes and shapes.
Note: Rational® Publishing Engine can generate irregular-shaped tables only for the Microsoft Word output. Creating an irregularly shaped table is different from modifying the column width and alignment for a specific cell because an irregularly shaped table can also have a different number of cells per row. Also, in most common scenarios the irregularly shaped tables come from the data as rich text.

Procedure

  1. To find the table property, navigate to Formatting > specific >fixed cell width in column.
  2. Set Table property fixed cell width in column as false.

Example

Navigate to Formatting > specific > cell width. Set Cell property cell width with the desired value. You can use hardcoded values or you can use values read from data sources, such as the TableCellWidth attribute from IBM® Rational DOORS®.

The following example illustrates setting the Border style.

  1. Set Cell properties right border style, bottom border style, and left border style, as <script>. To find the border property, navigate to Formatting > border > border style.
  2. Enter the following scripts in the script expression tabs of each border style: For top border style:
    if(TableTopBorder == "TableBorderFull")
    {
    "single"
    }
    else if(TableTopBorder == "TableBorderDotted")
    {
    "dotted"
    }
    else if(TableTopBorder == "TableBorderNone")
    {
    "none"
    }
    For right border style:
    if(TableRightBorder == "TableBorderFull")
    {
    "single"
    }
    else if(TableRightBorder == "TableBorderDotted")
    {
    "dotted"
    }
    else if(TableRightBorder == "TableBorderNone")
    {
    "none"
    }
    For bottom border style:
    if(TableBottomBorder == "TableBorderFull")
    {
    "single"
    }
    else if(TableBottomBorder == "TableBorderDotted")
    {
    "dotted"
    }
    else if(TableBottomBorder == "TableBorderNone")
    {
    "none"
    }
    For left border style:
    if(TableLeftBorder == "TableBorderFull")
    {
    "single"
    }
    else if(TableLeftBorder == "TableBorderDotted")
    {
    "dotted"
    }
    else if(TableLeftBorder == "TableBorderNone")
    {
    "none"
    }

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