tbl.man revision 79543 
1235274Sgabor.ig
2235274SgaborCopyright (C) 1989-1995, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3235274Sgabor
4Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
5this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
6are preserved on all copies.
7
8Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
9manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
10entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
11permission notice identical to this one.
12
13Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
14manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
15versions, except that this permission notice may be included in
16translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in
17the original English.
18..
19.TH @G@TBL @MAN1EXT@ "@MDATE@" "Groff Version @VERSION@"
20.SH NAME
21@g@tbl \- format tables for troff
22.SH SYNOPSIS
23.B @g@tbl
24[
25.B \-Cv
26]
27[
28.IR files \|.\|.\|.
29]
30.SH DESCRIPTION
31This manual page describes the GNU version of
32.BR tbl ,
33which is part of the groff document formatting system.
34.B tbl
35compiles descriptions of tables embedded within
36.B troff
37input files into commands that are understood by
38.BR troff .
39Normally, it should be invoked using the
40.B \-t
41option of
42.B groff.
43It is highly compatible with Unix
44.BR tbl .
45The output generated by GNU
46.B tbl
47cannot be processed with Unix
48.BR troff ;
49it must be processed with GNU
50.BR troff .
51If no files are given on the command line, the standard input
52will be read.
53A filename of
54.B \-
55will cause the standard input to be read.
56.SH OPTIONS
57.TP
58.B \-C
59Recognize
60.B .TS
61and
62.B .TE
63even when followed by a character other than space or newline.
64.TP
65.B \-v
66Print the version number.
67.SH USAGE
68Only the differences between GNU
69.B tbl
70and Unix
71.B tbl
72are described here.
73.LP
74Normally
75.B tbl
76attempts to prevent undesirable breaks in the table by using diversions.
77This can sometimes interact badly with macro packages' own use of diversions,
78when footnotes, for example, are used.
79The
80.B nokeep
81option tells
82.B tbl
83not to try and prevent breaks in this way.
84.LP
85The
86.B decimalpoint
87option specifies the character to be recognized as the decimal
88point character in place of the default period.
89It takes an argument in parentheses, which must be a single
90character, as for the
91.B tab
92option.
93.LP
94The
95.B f
96format modifier can be followed by an arbitrary length
97font name in parentheses.
98.LP
99There is a
100.B d
101format modifier which means that a vertically spanning entry
102should be aligned at the bottom of its range.
103.LP
104There is no limit on the number of columns in a table, nor any limit
105on the number of text blocks.
106All the lines of a table are considered in deciding column
107widths, not just the first 200.
108Table continuation
109.RB ( .T& )
110lines are not restricted to the first 200 lines.
111.LP
112Numeric and alphabetic items may appear in the same column.
113.LP
114Numeric and alphabetic items may span horizontally.
115.LP
116.B tbl
117uses register, string, macro and diversion names beginning with
118.BR 3 .
119When using
120.B tbl
121you should avoid using any names beginning with a
122.BR 3 .
123.SH BUGS
124You should use
125.BR .TS\ H / .TH
126in conjunction with a supporting macro package for
127.I all
128multi-page boxed tables.
129If there is no header that you wish to appear at the top of each page
130of the table, place the
131.B .TH
132line immediately after the format section.
133Do not enclose a multi-page table within keep/release macros,
134or divert it in any other way.
135.LP
136A text block within a table must be able to fit on one page.
137.LP
138The
139.B bp
140request cannot be used to force a page-break in a multi-page table.
141Instead, define
142.B BP
143as follows
144.IP
145.B .de BP
146.br
147.B .ie '\e\en(.z'' .bp \e\e$1
148.br
149.B .el \e!.BP \e\e$1
150.br
151.B ..
152.br
153.LP
154and use
155.B BP
156instead of
157.BR bp .
158.LP
159Using \ea directly in a table to get leaders will not work.
160This is correct behaviour: \ea is a
161.B uninterpreted
162leader.
163To get leaders use a real leader, either by using a control A or like
164this:
165.IP
166.nf
167.ft B
168\&.ds a \ea
169\&.TS
170tab(;);
171lw(1i) l.
172A\e*a;B
173\&.TE
174.ft
175.fi
176.SH "SEE ALSO"
177.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@),
178.BR @g@troff (@MAN1EXT@)
179.
180.\" Local Variables:
181.\" mode: nroff
182.\" End:
183