Reply To: Using DITA properties tables

[Derek Read]

Editing of the properties table type is currently quite limited in functionality. Essentially you should be able to safely type values into “cells” (proptype, propval, propdesc elements for example). If you need more “rows” (property elements) you can place the cursor at the very end of any content inside the last “cell” of a “row” and press Enter. If you place the cursor anywhere else in the table and press Enter one of two things will probably occur:

1. If the cursor is inside some textual content that content will be split. If no other elements were already present (ie: no

for example) you will end up with the first 1/2 of the original text followed by the second half wrapped inside a

, otherwise you may end up with two empty elements (if that element was allowed to be split), such as

followed by a new

for example.

2. If the cursor is contained directly within a “cell” that is not the last “cell” in a “row” the table will be messed up. In this case you can either undo the last action (best) or try to fix the table using the “Repair Table Structure” function located in the Table menu. This function works OK provided the properties table is not messed up too much.

We're working on improving this functionality for a future release, with the goal of making the “Repair Table Structure” function unnecessary (it is really only meant to be a stopgap measure).

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