How to lay out a page using tables and two or more columns

Mon, 05/19/2008 - 11:31

I've created some quick-reference sheets. The layout looks like this. Click the image to see it bigger. It's tables that repeat in three columns on each page. I needed columns so that I could keep the procedure name, in the left column of each table, together with the content in the right side of each table, the steps for the procedure. I also needed a heading at the top that spanned the columns.

I fiddled with a few ways to do it but here's what I ended up with. - I set the top margin of the first page as 1.5 inches or so from the top, then inserted a frame the width of the page, to hold the heading content. (Insert > Frame.) - I set up the page layout with three columns. (Format > Page, Columns tab.) - Then I just put in the tables. I made sure that the tables were allowed to break over page and column breaks, and I used the Break options when I needed to have the columns start at the top of various columns and pages.

I set the table width to the total width of the column. Then I set the proportions of the columns within the table. I did both using the table properties window. (Table > Table Properties, Table tab and Columns tab.)