Composing long tables

Composing long tables

[Peter Davis]

It seems that a lot of users would like to be able to create tables with 
multi-line cells in org-mode. Both HTML and LaTeX/PDF support this, so I 
think it would be very useful to have a way to do this in org-mode 
directly. One syntax that comes to mind would be to simply use a number 
of "|" characters at the start of a line/paragraph to indicate the column:

| This is column 1
|| This is column 2, which might consist of a very long paragraph (or 
even multiple paragraphs) would could automatically wrap when exporting 
to LaTeX/PDF or to HTML (or to other table-friendly formats.)
||| This is column 3,
|||| etc.

Admittedly this is not as readable as a table when editing in org-mode, 
but it seems intuitively clear, and would certainly make creating tables 
for export easier.

Just an idea. I'd welcome comments on this. (Note: I have nowhere near 
the knowledge of lisp or org-mode implementation to be able to do this.)

Thanks,
-pd

-- 
----
Peter Davis
http://www.techcurmudgeon.com

Re: Composing long tables

[Peter Davis]

Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> writes:

> It seems that a lot of users would like to be able to create tables
> with multi-line cells in org-mode. Both HTML and LaTeX/PDF support
> this, so I think it would be very useful to have a way to do this in
> org-mode directly. One syntax that comes to mind would be to simply
> use a number of "|" characters at the start of a line/paragraph to
> indicate the column:
>
> | This is column 1
> || This is column 2, which might consist of a very long paragraph (or
> | even multiple paragraphs) would could automatically wrap when
> | exporting to LaTeX/PDF or to HTML (or to other table-friendly
> | formats.)
> ||| This is column 3,
> |||| etc.
>
> Admittedly this is not as readable as a table when editing in org-mode, but it seems intuitively clear, and would certainly make creating tables for export easier.
>
> Just an idea. I'd welcome comments on this. (Note: I have nowhere near the knowledge of lisp or org-mode implementation to be able to do this.)


I think Thunderbird put in those extra "|" on the column 2 item. It should have been:

| This is column 1
|| This is column 2, which might consist of a very long paragraph (or even multiple paragraphs) would could automatically wrap when |exporting to LaTeX/PDF or to HTML (or to other table-friendly formats.)
||| This is column 3,
|||| etc.

-pd

Re: Composing long tables

[Peter Davis]

Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> writes:

> Peter Davis <pfd@pfdstudio.com> writes:
>
>> It seems that a lot of users would like to be able to create tables
>> with multi-line cells in org-mode. Both HTML and LaTeX/PDF support
>> this, so I think it would be very useful to have a way to do this in
>> org-mode directly. One syntax that comes to mind would be to simply
>> use a number of "|" characters at the start of a line/paragraph to
>> indicate the column:
>>
>> | This is column 1
>> || This is column 2, which might consist of a very long paragraph (or
>> | even multiple paragraphs) would could automatically wrap when
>> | exporting to LaTeX/PDF or to HTML (or to other table-friendly
>> | formats.)
>> ||| This is column 3,
>> |||| etc.
>>
>> Admittedly this is not as readable as a table when editing in org-mode, but it seems intuitively clear, and would certainly make creating tables for export easier.
>>
>> Just an idea. I'd welcome comments on this. (Note: I have nowhere near the knowledge of lisp or org-mode implementation to be able to do this.)
>
>
> I think Thunderbird put in those extra "|" on the column 2 item. It should have been:
>
> | This is column 1
> || This is column 2, which might consist of a very long paragraph (or
> | even multiple paragraphs) would could automatically wrap when
> | |exporting to LaTeX/PDF or to HTML (or to other table-friendly
> | formats.)
> ||| This is column 3,
> |||| etc.
>

Well crap, Gnus did the same thing. What I intended was that the entire "This is column 2 ... other table-friendly formats.)" be on
one line, with no hard breaks.

-pd