Table Headers and Footers

[Context: HL Kit … Basic Concepts and Terminology … Manipulation of Visual Elements … Working With Tables]

Headers

To help make positioning easier, tables have a built-in option to include a header. Instead of having to position the header separately from the table itself, the Kit merges them into a single unit. When trying to dynamically fit multiple tables into a fixed amount of space, this integration makes the task substantially easier. As the name would imply, headers always appear above the contents of the table.

Headers can be defined for all tables, and they work very similarly to the add option of dynamic tables. The quick and easy way of adding a header is to define a "HeaderTitle" script. The script specifies the text to used for the header, and you can use encoded text to including custom highlighting and formatting, but you may only have a single line of text. Because it's a script, you readily change the contents of the header based on conditions within the character. The Kit will automatically handle all the mechanics of showing the header if you specify a script.

There is a second way to specify a header. You can define a custom template and associate it with the table for use as the header, along with an object from which the template contents can be pulled. This technique is useful when you want to display more complex information within the header. For example, you may want to put column headings above a table, and that entails defining your own header template. You can see a few examples of this within the World of Darkness data files on the Armory tab.

Footers

Only fixed tables can possess a footer, and they always appear beneath the contents of the table. On fixed tables, the footer takes the place of the add option on dynamic tables. The footer can only be defined via use of a template, and that template works just like the header template described above. The only difference is the placement of the footer relative to the table. The object referenced by the footer template is the same one used by the header - it is shared.