Create columns in html tables using org-mode

Question

I often create tables in LaTeX and fill them with text or graphics in this way:

\begin{tabular}{cc}
\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
  Stuff in column 1 which can be a figure
\end{minipage} &
\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
  Stuff in column 2 which can be a figure
\end{minipage}
\end{tabular}

When I use the minipage environment, I no longer have to align the text in columns 1 and 2 by each row, so I can essentially enter, edit, or paste prose as I desire (kind of like creating tables in MS Word...).

Is there such a trick when generating HTML using emacs org-mode?

Edit

To describe my situation better...

If I have prose,

text block 1:

c1, line1
c1, line2
c1, line3

text block 2:

c2, line1
c2, line2

LaTeX:

\begin{tabular}{cc}
\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
  c1, line1
  c1, line2
  c1, line3
\end{minipage} &
\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
  c2, line1
  c2, line2
\end{minipage}
\end{tabular}

html:

<table>
<tr>
<td>
c1, line1<br>
c1, line2<br>
c1, line3<br>
</td>
<td>
c2, line1<br>
c2, line2<br>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

org-mode:

| c1, line1 | c2, line1 |
| c1, line2 | c2, line2 |
| c1, line3 |           |

With org-mode, I would have to manually align text row-wise, whereas with LaTeX I can just drop the text in a minipage environment without concern for how text spanning multiple rows would align.

Is the issue that you don't know how to put images inside a table in org-mode? Would using inline images work for this? — cm2
– cm2, Commented Mar 4, 2012 at 23:39
Not necessarily images, but arbitrary text/object of any length/height that would not affect the text layout in the next column. The org-mode tables are row-wise by default. — hatmatrix
– hatmatrix, Commented Mar 5, 2012 at 18:51
So you would like the column widths to be fixed? In the HTML then, you want something like < COL width=50% />? — cm2
– cm2, Commented Mar 5, 2012 at 20:43
Actually the vertical expansion due to multi-line text... my apologies for all the confusion. — hatmatrix
– hatmatrix, Commented Mar 6, 2012 at 14:16
No problem - sorry for all my questions, but I want to understand what you want :). It sounds like you want uneven cell sizes in the HTML table? Something like this? If not, do you know what you want the end result of the HTML to look like? — cm2
– cm2, Commented Mar 6, 2012 at 16:49

cm2 · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-07 00:19:20Z

2

This is only as an answer instead of a comment so that I have more space - it is not an optimal solution.

This is what I thought you wanted. In HTML you only have 1 row, but you manually have to enter in the <br/> to get a newline within each column. My comment about fixed column widths was to say that you could fix those widths, and then let the text wrap itself within each column. That should be doable with a #+ATTR_HTML: tag in org-mode. The problem is that it will wrap but not break where you want it to.

I think in org-mode you would have to do something similar as in HTML. Namely, you need to specify where the line should break. I've not yet tested it, but \n should export as a <br> in HTML. So you might be able to get away with something like this:

| c1, line1 \n c1, line2 \n c1, line3 | c2, line1 \n c2, line2 |

This is a little less than ideal as you still have manual work to do. If you know some Lisp - or even use org-mode Babel - you can write some script to take some block of text as input and split it with \n's and form your columns. Again, it is not as straightforward as copying and pasting your information, but it might get the job done. I'm not sure there is a way to do this directly within org-mode.

EDIT: Actually the first question under the FAQ for tables seems to answer the question that it isn't possible in org-mode directly...I think.

answered Mar 7, 2012 at 0:19

cm2

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3 Comments

hatmatrix Over a year ago

Thanks! The \n is not translated to <br> unfortunately, and you're right that the FAQ answer settles it for me... But thank you for all of your help.

cm2 Over a year ago

Yes, I was thinking more about this on the way in to work today, and came to the conclusion that the newline probably isn't properly translated. You also can't enter <br/> in the table, because the angle brackets will be exported as < and > in HTML. There may be some other special character that gets translated, but I'm not sure.

hatmatrix Over a year ago

Yes, there is that... I've seen some lispy solutions to reconvert &lt and &gt back to their original definitions but yeah, probably not worth it. I will find another format to present my information...

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