<refentry id="table.in.float">

  <refmeta>

    <refentrytitle>table.in.float</refentrytitle>

  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>

    <refname><parameter>table.in.float</parameter></refname>

    <refpurpose>Use or emulate a float to display a formal table?</refpurpose>

  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>

    <programlisting><xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" parse="text" href="syn/table.in.float.xml"/></programlisting>

  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsection>

    <title>Description</title>

    <para id="floating_table_def">Determines whether formal tables

    float.  Floating tables do not necessarily appear in the output

    document in the location in which they appear in the DocBook

    input, they may move when this improves the overall document

    layout.  Non-floating tables always appear in the rendered

    document in the same place as they appear in the input DocBook

    document.</para>

    <para id="nonfloating_table_desc">Informal tables never float.

    Tables that do not float are processed using the

    <package>longtable</package> package.  Unlike the methods used to

    process floating tables, tables processed with

    <package>longtable</package> may span page boundaries.  Floating

    tables may not cross page boundaries and so may not be larger than

    a single page.</para>

    <para id="longtable_limits">The <package>longtable</package>

    package is limited in that titles must be positioned at the top of

    the table.  This limits the positioning of non-floating table

    titles to the top of the table.</para>

    <para>When <parameter>table.in.float</parameter> is

    <literal>0</literal> formal tables do not float.</para>

    <para>The default is <literal>1</literal>, formal tables

    float.</para>

  </refsection>

</refentry>