two-column format

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

Alright, apparently I lied. This method sucks ass through a stirring stick. I can't find individual "pages' without going through the entire document with either the mouse wheel or the scroll arrows, and I get this weird doubling of lines from the scrolling, which makes it hard to tell what I'm looking at. Plus, somtimes entire portions of text just disappear. They're there, but they're "trapped" past where I can see them, so I have to create a new row and paste from an old version of the document to get that lost material back.

I give up. Anything that isn't $300 that does a good job? Like maybe in the $30 range? Doesn't seem like this software should be very expensive.

Try using the [TAB] key to add a new row after each scene. I think your problem is due to trying to have a 1-row, 2-column table span many pages. Try making the first row in the table a header row, perhaps with column headings centred in each cell, and make each new scene start a new row by tabbing after the outgoing scene to make a new set of cells. Leaving a row blank allows you to double space between scenes. This way, the audio and video in each scene will start together on the same line even though the descriptions may be quite differemnt in length.

[Pete Bauer]

Hi Josh,

It almost sounds like you're having video driver problems -- everything up to date? Since I use Word documents of sometimes over 100 pages with a continuous 2-column table and have no problem, I'm thinking there must either be a driver problem or a glitch in set-up or use.

We're both in the Houston area...maybe we can get together and solve this?

[Pete Bauer]

I just re-read Steve's comments and have to echo them:

If you've done this as a table with one gargantuan row, he's right on the mark that that's not a good idea. Each row need only be an inch or two high, and you can have thousands of rows without performance problems. Text in left-hand cell of a row, picture in right-hand cell of same row.

Also, embedded graphics really add dramatically to file size -- which CAN affect system performance. So keep 'em as small stills or hyperlinks.

[Josh Bass]

Thanks guys, I'll try these new things. If I've already had the gargantuan one row file, is there a way to divide it after the fact? Or do I need to start from scratch?

Yes, Pete, we can meet if you like.

[Pete Bauer]

I'm thinking this through on the fly without being able to actually see if it works, so try it on a COPY of your file:

Decide on a special character to be your "end of cell" marker...whatever you want, but something you otherwise don't use in your document, for example a ~.

Put an "end of cell" marker wherever you want one cell to end and the next cell to begin throughout your document. (The flow goes row1-L to row1-R to row2-L to row2-R...).

Choose a different special character that you don't otherwise use in the document (such as ^) to replace your paragraph marks. (They seem to confuse Word when you convert tables to text, so we're temporarily "hiding" them). Of course, just delete any paragraph marks that you won't want later.

Edit>>Replace... all your paragraph marks with the replacement character.

Then, Table>> Convert Table to Text, making sure to enter your "end of cell" marker in the dialog box.

Make sure everything stays selected.

(It'll look like a giant mess because there aren't any paragraph marks).

Then, Table>>Convert Text to Table making sure to get your settings right: 2 columns, Separate Text at = Other (your "end of cell" character).

Edit>>Replace to get all your paragraph marks back.

Might have to tweak a little bit, but with not too much effort, you should be able to do it.

Or, you could just create a whole bunch of new rows and cut-and-paste from the one big cell until each small paragraph and graphic is in its own cell.