Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-destable.html


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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label destable</title>
</head><body>
<h3>The design of tables</h3>
<p/>In recent years, several authors have argued that the examples, set
out by Lamport in his <a href="FAQ-books.html">LaTeX manual</a>, have cramped
authors&rsquo; style and have led to extremely poor table design.  It is in
fact difficult even to work out what many of the examples in Lamport&rsquo;s
book &ldquo;mean&rdquo;.
<p/>The criticism focuses on the excessive use of rules (both horizontal
and vertical) and on the poor vertical spacing that Lamport&rsquo;s macros
offer.
<p/>The problem of vertical spacing is plain for all to see, and is
addressed in several packages &mdash; see 
&ldquo;<a href="FAQ-struttab.html">spacing of lines in tables</a>&rdquo;.
<p/>The argument about rules is presented in the excellent essay that
prefaces the documentation of Simon Fear&rsquo;s <i>booktabs</i> package,
which (of course) implements Fear&rsquo;s scheme for &lsquo;comfortable&rsquo; rules.
(The same rule commands are implemented in the <i>memoir</i> class.)
<p/>Lamport&rsquo;s LaTeX was also inflexibly wrong in &ldquo;insisting&rdquo; that
captions should come at the bottom of a table.  Since a table may
extend over several pages, traditional typography places the caption
at the top of a table float.  The <code>\</code><code>caption</code> command will get its
position wrong (by <code>10pt</code>) if you simply write:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\begin{table}
  \caption{Example table}
  \begin{tabular}{...}
    ...
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
The <i>topcapt</i> package solves this problem:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\usepackage{topcaption}
...
\begin{table}
  \topcaption{Example table}
  \begin{tabular}{...}
    ...
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
The <i>KOMA-script</i> classes provide a similar command
<code>\</code><code>captionabove</code>; they also have a class option
<code>tablecaptionabove</code> which arranges that <code>\</code><code>caption</code>
<em>means</em> <code>\</code><code>captionabove</code>, in table environments.  The
<i>caption</i> (from the release of 23 January, 2004) may be loaded
with an option that has the same effect:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\usepackage[tableposition=top]{caption}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
<p/>Doing the job yourself is pretty easy: <i>topcapt</i> switches the
values of the LaTeX2e parameters <code>\</code><code>abovecaptionskip</code> (default
value <code>10pt</code>) and <code>\</code><code>belowcaptionskip</code> (default value
<code>0pt</code>), so:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\begin{table}
  \setlength{\abovecaptionskip}{0pt}
  \setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{10pt}
  \caption{Example table}
  \begin{tabular}{...}
    ...
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
does the job.  (The package itself is very slightly more elaborate...)
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>booktabs.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/booktabs.zip">macros/latex/contrib/booktabs</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/booktabs.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/booktabs/">browse</a>)
<dt><tt><i>KOMA script bundle</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script.zip">macros/latex/contrib/koma-script</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script/">browse</a>)
<dt><tt><i>memoir.cls</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir.zip">macros/latex/contrib/memoir</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/">browse</a>)
<dt><tt><i>topcapt.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/misc/topcapt.sty">macros/latex/contrib/misc/topcapt.sty</a>
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=destable">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=destable</a>
</body>