In my document, I need to generate a table that has merged cells. simple example
As M2Doc does not support the merge of cells, I have tried two workarounds.
Workaround 1
It consists in creating nested tables inside the second column. I have played with the borders to hide the fact that it is a nested table.
M2Doc template of workaround 1
Unfortunately Word does not handle nested table correctly, as there is no way to garantee the constant width of cells. Which results in columns that don't have a constant width.
illustration of inconsistent column width
Workaround 2
My second workaround was to generate excel tables outside M2Doc, with Python4Capella. And in my M2Doc template, I create references towards the generated tables.
This second workaround would work well if I did not have to display XHTML descriptions in my table. So far, I can only get the markup code in Excel and I have no means to interpret it.
Any idea of how I could implement my table including merged cells with the current capabilities of M2Doc? For example with a dedicated Java service that I would develop? If so, any hint about how this service could be implemented is highly welcome. And so is any idea of strategy!
Thank you
It is possible to create a Java service to merge cells for instance this service.
Also you have Excel services to insert a table from an .xlsx file.
With Python for capella you will have to parse the XHTML from your description to use OpenPyXL formating.
And maybe an other idea could be to use MS Excel itself to do the conversion via a macro or some cell format option.