Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: screenshot and itemizedlist,top alignment in single row table

[Bob Stayton <bobs@caldera.com>]

On Wed, Dec 25, 2002 at 06:32:44PM +1100, Sean Wheller wrote:
> 
> I need to put a screenshot and itemizedlist into a table.
> 
> I use a table with 1 row and two cols. The screenshot in the Left cell and the 
> list in the Right cell, both in the same row. I find this works well to 
> converse space (one page/screen full), and helps readers to match the list 
> descriptions with the adjacent picture. In this case a picture of the file 
> menu which is long.
> 
> The problem is when I do FO output. The distance from the top table border is 
> not the same for the picture and itemizedlist. The picture is flush with the 
> top border and the itemized list in spaced down about 0.25in.

I suspect you are using FOP as your FO processor.
The XEP processor lines up both at the tops of
their respective table cells.

The problem is that FOP doesn't know when to turn
off 'space-before' properties.  There are situations
where a space-before property on a block
is not appropriate, such as at the top of a page
or top of a table cell.  What you are seeing is the
spacing for screen and listitem you would get when
such blocks are laid out on a page to separate them
from other blocks.  The screen spacing is 1em, the
list start spacing is 1em, and the list item spacing
is also 1em, so the listitem is 1em lower.
But in a table cell, all such space-before should not
be output, and so they should line up.

If you still want a work-around for FOP,
if you were to eliminate the space-before for the
list, then they would both be 1em and 
equal so they line up.  The list spacing is
specified in the 'list.block.spacing' attribute-set
in fo/param.xsl. You could set that to zero in
a customization layer, but that would apply to
all lists in all contexts.

I don't see an easy way
to customize this just for table cells, short of
copying the itemizedlist template from fo/lists.xsl
to your customization layer, and changing the template
to match="entry/itemizedlist".  Then
you could customize the spacing it as needed.
But you will have to be careful to watch for 
changes to the itemizedlist template during
stylesheet upgrades to maintain compatibility.

-- 

Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
Publications Architect                      Santa Cruz, CA  95060
Technical Publications                      voice: (831) 427-7796
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                                            email: bobs@sco.com