Table Layout Performance of Document Authoring Tools

Summary of table formatting features Conclusions

Feature MsWord2003/2007

FrameMaker7.0

iWorks Pages 3.02

HTML/ CSS TeX/LaTeX

Resizing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Rotate Yes Yes No No No

Pading & Margins Yes No No Yes Tricks req.*

Borders Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Auto-layout Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Inner tables Yes No No Yes No**

Equations Yes Yes No Plugin req.*** Yes

Split vertically No No No Print only No

Split Horizontally Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Grouping of rows/cols No Yes No Yes No

Templates Yes Yes No CSS only Macros req.

Table Header Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Table Footer No Yes Yes Yes No

Column Header No No Yes No No

Caption Yes Yes No Yes Yes

Caption position No No No Yes No

Table Summary No No No Yes No

* Adjust the cell’s height ** Using additional packages*** Only FireFox can natively render equations defined in MathML

Mihai BilaucaCSIS DepartmentUniversity of LimerickLimerick, Irelandmihai@bilauca.net

Patrick HealyCSIS DepartmentUniversity of LimerickLimerick, Irelandpatrick.healy@ul.ie

Figure 1: An illustration of Table 3.4-b from the A-7E Documentation. Figure 2: A stack of limited range and depth

SAMPLE TABLES

DOCUMENT AUTHORING TOOLS PERFORMANCE

Figure 3: Rotated content in Word is misplaced.To correct this effect each column must be resized.Resizing only the second column is not possible.

Figure 4: FrameMaker 7.0 misplaces rotated equations.

Figure 5: Borders in Word are aligned differently even for the same cell

?Table editing is hard, time consuming, and error prone. Basic operations such as resizing cells are difficult using even popular packages;

?Unlike other fields, where there are agreed collections of test data, for table layout there is no library of tables that could be used to evaluate table editors or other algorithms;

?There are no agreed standards on how to solve technical problems such as border conflict resolution;

?The information cannot be easily transferred between table editing tools. All the effort deployed in authoring tables using a tool is lost if another tool is used;

?Large tables cannot be split vertically across pages. None of the surveyed tools cater for this option;

?Visual indicators and grouping rows and columns are important in large tables. They eliminate the need of using physical guidance tools to follow data in large rows/columns;

?Tools are essential when authoring tables and the development of high-quality table tools should be further pursued.

DocEng2010, September 21– 24, 2010, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Why authoring tables is still difficult and can be a frustrating and error prone exercise?

A survey of table creation in several popular document authoring programs