spanning a table over 2 pages

[thrynae]

I have a problem that sounds similar to this problem, but I can't find if this is possible.

What i want to do is have a table that is 2 pages wide, so I can print it in a readable way. So instead of using a landscape setup with 4 columns, I want a portrait setup with 2 columns on each. But as I'm generating over 30 000 rows I don't want to have to add section breaks or something like that for every page. I need them all to be alligned and don't know the length, so interleaving is not really an option.

[macropod]

Word can't do that. In any event, Excel would probably be a far better tool to use in this case.

[thrynae]

So how to pull this off in Excel then?

[macropod]

With your whole table there, size it and the page margins etc. so that you get a split between the columns, then set the print order to across then down.

[thrynae]

Thank you for your answers.

Is it possible to add some kind of chapter notation in a footer?

[macropod]

Excel's page layout tools provide for headers & footers but, if you need a different header or footer for each chapter, then each chapter would probably need to use a different worksheet.

[thrynae]

Ok. Thank you for your time. As I will have about 12 000 chapters, I think it can't be done with Office tools.

[macropod]

Judging from your last post, I think there's some confusion as to terminology. What you're calling chapters, of which you say you have about 12,000, seems to me to be nothing more than section/subject headings. In that case, you could simply insert rows with the headings wherever you require them on the worksheet.

[thrynae]

whoops, a zero too much, I meant 1200 (spanning a total of 3000-4000 pages).

And I am planning on adding a row with the chapter titles, but to improve search-ability I would like to have the chapter title in a footer (instead of or next to the page number).

[macropod]

For search-ability, you'd want the content in the body (i.e. on rows) rather than in a header or footer. This applies to Word, too.

[thrynae]

I mean the search-ability when it gets printed.

[macropod]

Unless you're prepared to insert the titles onto rows wherever a page break would occur, you're back to having to use different worksheets so you can have the headers & footers.

You need to understand that what you're asking isn't something that's normally done with any Office product. Although it can be done with Word, Excel or Publisher, all three applications require you to change the way you're working to suit the way those programs work. I expect you would find the same with any non-Office application.

[thrynae]

The problem is that there is no telling in advance where a page break will occur, so script-wise editing is out (or is it?)

I have now 4 source files (in csv format) and I want them to be aligned (across the 2 pages, with 2 on each page). I would prefer it to be in a portrait orientation and have some kind of footnote that contains the chapter title to make it more search-able in print.

I do realize this is not something done often, that is why I came to this forum. If there is any way to do this (either by scripting or a cleaver trick), I would love to hear your advice. I don't really care what program I ultimately have to use. (At this point I am considering to use LaTeX, though I would need to really familiarize myself with it, besides the point you make about non-traditional wishes)

[macropod]

In Excel, once you do a Print Preview, gridlines will be displayed that show where the page breaks will occur. You can also insert manual page breaks to make them occur earlier if you want.

Excel also allows you to change the page orientation.

As for scripting, since I haven't seen your data and don't know exactly what you're trying to achieve, that would be rather difficult.

[thrynae]

Inserting page breaks in that way will mean over 3000 edits, in which case I think it would be more logical to copy the tables into Word to generate the chapter footnote. If possible I would really like to avoid 3000+ manual edits.

My data consists of 4 cvs files, each containing about 30 000 lines (chapter, id1, id2, text).


some ASCIIart explaining my goal:

------------------------
|file1 |file2 ||file3 |file4 |
|line1 |line1 ||line1 |line1 |
|-----|-----||-----|-----|
|file1 |file2 ||file3 |file4 |
|line2 |line2 ||line2 |line2 |
|-----|-----||-----|-----|
|file1 |file2 ||file3 |file4 |
|line3 |line3 ||line3 |line3 |
--------------------------