In this paper we consider the table layout problem. We present a combinatorial optimization modeling method for the table layout optimization problem, the problem of minimizing a table's height subject to it fitting on a given page (width). We present two models of the problem and report on their evaluation.

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In this paper we present an overview of the challenges to overcome when developing table authoring tools, including a review of logical table models, typographical issues and automated table layout optimization. We present a Table Drawing Tool prototype which implements an automated solution for the table layout optimization problem for tables with spanning cells using a mathematical modelling method. We report on the performance improvements of this new optimization method compared to previous solutions.

A utomatic layout of tables is useful in word processing applications and is required in online applications because of the need to tailor the layout to viewport width, choice of font, and dynamic content. However, if the table contains text, minimizing the height of the table for a given maximum width is a difficult combinatorial optimization problem because of the need to find the right choice of height/width configuration for each cell in the table. We investigate the modelling decisions involved in formulating this problem for use with standard combinatorial optimization techniques that are guaranteed to find the minimal-height table. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to do so. We provide a detailed empirical evaluation of the resulting models using mixed integer programming and constraint programming with lazy clause generation.

In this paper we discuss the problems that occur when splitting wide tables across multiple pages. We focus our attention on finding solutions that minimize the impact on the meaning of data when the objective is to reorder the columns such that the number of pages used is minimal. Reordering of columns in a table raises a number of complex optimization problems that we will study in this paper: minimizing page count and at the same time the number of column positions changes or the number of column groups split across pages. We show that by using integer programming solutions the number of pages used when splitting wide tables can be reduced by up to 25% and it can be achieved in short computational time.