xml/xslt/fo - Drawing lines on form

[bridgji]

I'm getting a form in xml format from an old legacy system that I cannot change. In the file there are some lines which are drawn using --------. Since they are a specific lenght regardless of the text around them I can't convert it underlined text. If I convert them to ____ the layout works but the line is too close to the next line. I'd like to convert the ---- one for one to something better or calculate the placement and draw an actual line. I was hopeing someone else had some thoughts on this since everything I try either ends up with the line in the wrong place or the wrong size.

I'm new to xml so I'm probably missing something obvious. Any help would be apreciated.

Thanks
Jim

 

[Wiszh]

If you can, before processing the XML, try to run a find & replace of the --- to some useful tag such as <linebreak/> and then when processing the XML convert the tag as needed.

 

[JontyMC]

Are you converting it to HTML? What you using to do it? What exact input have you got and what's the desired output?

Jon

"Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral. I want that ship, not excuses.

 

[bridgji]

I'm converting to pdf using xalan and fop. I'm basicly taking a plain text only report and adding nice fonts, formatting and images. This will run for all reports I get from a legacy system that I can't change. What we have is a purchase order form that has some lines which are created by the --- character. What I want is something more like ______ , a solid line. The probem with just converting the - to _ is that the line is then down to far on the form. I thought I'd try to replace them with an actual drawn line but figuring out the placement is what has me stumped. I also wasn't sure if there was a better character to replace the dashes with that might look ok.

Thanks for taking the time to reply and think about this.

Jim