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Horizontal Fold Table

The Horizontal Fold Table transformation is used to 'fold' wide tables that contain a large number of columns into a taller, vertically oriented table. Users may have a need for the Horizontal Fold Table transformation if the table is so wide that it either cannot fit within a single InDesign page column or page, or if a vertical layout is desired.

This transformation works similarly to the 'Horizontal Wrap Table' transformation (documented in the Table Transformation: Horizontal Wrap Table topic here), as both facilitate the ability to 'fold' a wide table into multiple table sections ('folds' or 'wraps') that stack on top of one another. However, unlike the Horizontal Wrap Table transformation, a table folded using the Horizontal Fold Table transformation is folded based on a designated number of folds, not on particular column types. This transformation is also similar to the Fold Table transformation (documented in the Table Transformation: Fold Table topic here), except the Fold Table transformation takes a table that is very tall and folds it over into a horizontally oriented table.

Though there are many combinations of configurations that can be applied within the transformation, the following two screenshots show a sample 'before' and 'after' of a table (as previewed within the workbench) after applying the Horizontal Fold Table transformation.

Example

Before:

After (preview only pictured):

Prerequisites

In order to take full advantage of this transformation, the table should meet these conditions:

Required:

• The table has a minimum of three columns

Optional:

• Though not required to use the transformation, tables using the Horizontal Fold Table transformation typically use at least one column type of Heading (1) and/or Sub Heading (2).

This topic assumes the following:

• You have already built the table to which you will be applying the Horizontal Fold Table transformation. Instructions on how to build the table itself are not provided in this topic; see the Creating Tables documentation here for more information.
• You have already designated which columns should be used as the header(s) and/or subheader(s). This topic does not describe how to designate columns as such; for information, see the Creating Column Types topic here.

Applying and Configuring the Horizontal Fold Table Transformation

For this topic, the example table has eight columns, two of which are headers (a header column and subheader column), and the remainder of which are 'Normal Row' columns. (Even though the setting is Normal 'Row,' this setting applies to both rows and columns and simply means that the column / row is not used as a header, a subheader, or a footnote column / row.)

The Preview of the table looks like this before any transformations are applied:

To apply the Horizontal Fold Table transformation:

1. In the Tree, navigate to the product, classification, or product-override object that contains the table to which you would like to apply the transformation, then click the Tables tab.

2. Select the table type to which you would like to apply the transformation, then click the Preview tab.
3. Beneath the table preview, click 'Add Transformation' to display the Select Transformation dialog.
4. Select the Horizontal Fold Table transformation, then click OK to apply the transformation.

5. Next, the transformation itself must be configured. Click the ellipsis on the transformation to launch the Horizontal Fold Table configuration dialog.

6. The options within the Horizontal Wrap Table transformation dialog and their functions are as follows. The options are described in the logical order in which they are typically selected.

• Folds: In the Folds field, enter a number to designate how many times the table should be folded. The following screenshot shows a preview of the table with (3) entered in this field.

• Repeat All Heading 1's at left.: Check this box to repeat all Heading (1) columns at the beginning of each wrap. The below example shows how this table looks with the settings configured as follows:

• Repeat Last Heading 2: Tick this box to repeat the last subheader column at the beginning of each wrap. A typical setup includes only one header and one subheader column. The below example shows how this table looks with the settings configured as follows:

• Protect against orphans. and Orphans to Move: 'Orphan' is a typographical term that refers to a paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. The same concept applies to 'orphaned' columns in folded tables.

Sometimes a 'Normal' (non-header) column can end up by itself on a fold when the headers are repeated, causing it to be 'orphaned,' as such:

Note: Number of folds takes precedence over orphan protection, so this option is more of a 'protect if possible' option. In addition, this option only works when Sub Heading (2) columns are repeated; it will not work if only Heading (1) level columns are repeated.

For the table pictured in the previous screenshot, ticking 'protect against orphans' will move the orphaned column (Sale Price) up to the previous fold so it is no longer by itself. For this configuration, (1) has been entered for Orphans to move.

The 'orphan' Sale Price column is now moved to the previous fold:

Orphaned Header Columns

As illustrated in the preceding section, moving an orphaned 'Normal' column can sometimes create an orphaned header. In this example, it is the 'Part Number' Heading (1) column that has been orphaned and now appears by itself on the last fold. Removing it will require a separate table transformation. (It is not unusual, however, to have multiple transformations stacked on one another, as this is common with tables in order to manipulate them to their final form.)

To remove this 'empty' header, the 'Remove Empty Rows/Columns' transformation must be added after the Horizontal Fold Table transformation. Full instructions on how to configure this transformation are described in the Table Transformation: Remove Empty Rows/Columns topic here. But, to illustrate the configuration for this example, a value of '1' is entered in the 'Heading Columns' field and the 'Remove Rows' box is ticked.

The table now looks like this:

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