Re: [xsl] Balancing Columns

Subject: Re: [xsl] Balancing Columns
From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 10:50:05 -0500
At 2002-01-25 00:26 +0900, MURAKAMI Shinyu wrote:
At Thu, 24 Jan 2002 08:59:39 -0600, W. Eliot Kimber wrote:
>
>      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx     xxxxxxxxxx
>      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx
>
> Not:
>
>      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx
>      xxxxxxxxxxx
>      xxxxxxxxxxx
>      xxxxxxxxxxx

try the following code:

    <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">
      <fo:block>xxxxxxxxxxx</fo:block>
      <fo:block>xxxxxxxxxxx</fo:block>
      <fo:block>xxxxxxxxxxx</fo:block>
      <fo:block>xxxxxxxxxxx</fo:block>
      <fo:block>xxxxxxxxxxx</fo:block>
      <fo:block span="all"></fo:block>
    </fo:flow>

HTH,

This is neat!


I note that the balancing favours the end-side columns in XSL Formatter, for example formatting 7 blocks of equal height creates:

      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx     xxxxxxxxxx
      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx     xxxxxxxxxx
                                      xxxxxxxxxx

Formatting 5 blocks of equal height creates:

      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx     xxxxxxxxxx
      xxxxxxxxxxx                     xxxxxxxxxx

Is there any way to bias the balancing to the columns on the start-side of the page than on the end-side of the page? Or, expressed another way, to fill start-side columns before the end-side columns? As in:

      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx     xxxxxxxxxx
      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx
      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx

or Eliot's initial request for:

      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx     xxxxxxxxxx
      xxxxxxxxxxx      xxxxxxxxxx

Thanks for the tip!

................ Ken


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