How to preserve columns (sections) when exporting to pdf?
Asked by MathewI:

I've tried to edit the stylesheet, but CSS simply isn't in my toolbox... How can I make it so that columns are rendered when exporting to PDF?

Here is my existing stylesheet:

```
@page      {      margin: .5in;      size: 8.5in 11in;      }      body,p,li,td,table,tr,.bodytext,.stepfield       {          font-size: 10pt;          /*line-height: 1.1;*/          color: #000;          font-weight: normal;      }
```

Thanks!


Answers:
author: Sean King
body: Instead of using Export to PDF you can use File \> Print \> Save as PDF. This will convert what you're seeing at that moment to PDF.


author: Steffen Heller
body: I just found out that I have already been using a workaround myself (my PDF Export Stylesheet is 1.243 lines long so it can happen that I forget and overlook certain things).

This should work:

```
table.sectionMacro&gt;tbody&gt;tr&gt;td, table.sectionMacroWithBorder&gt;tbody&gt;tr&gt;td {display: table-cell;padding: 2px;border: 1px solid black;}
```

The "padding" and "border" is not really needed but helps showing where the columns are. I think I copied that myself but can't remember where.

comments: author: MathewI
body: Hi, Steffen- thanks for taking a crack at this. Unfortunately, the snippet you provided there didn't change anything in my version of Confluence (5.1.4)


author: Eric Dahl
body: Did anyone ever figure this out? Pretty much makes Confluence useless for my needs.


author: Steffen Heller
body: Do you know the [confluencedefaultpdf.css](http://confluence.atlassian.com/download/attachments/190480945/confluencedefaultpdf.css) ?

If you scroll down there is a section starting with

```
/* wraps the section columns underneath each other so they don't run off the page */
```

What follows is the standard CSS that makes the columns appear underneath each other. I guess you must try to find the CSS that overrides this and turns it all back to normal columns.

I tried a bit but don't fully understand the code and can't provide a more elaborate answer.


author: salvatore
body: Hi, Mathew.

As for me, I have seldom tried to preserve columns (sections) when exporting to pdf. I wonder have you ever worked it out? Do I need another 3rd party manual toolkit? When it comes to [PDF converting](http://www.pqscan.com/convert-pdf/) process, I have another question, I wonder have you ever tried to [convert pdf to other image files](http://www.pqscan.com/pdf-to-image/) before? As for myself, I am testing the related PDF to PNG converting, PDF to BMP converting , and PDF to JPG converting programs these days. Do you have experience about it? Any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Pan

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author: Steffen Heller
body: Sorry that it doesn't work.

When I create two {columns} inside one {section} and export to PDF I get a page with the columns underneath each other. When I add the above code and do the same the two columns are side by side.

I am using 4.3.7. When it doesn't work for you it must be because of the different versions or because there is some other difference (e.g. how you create the columns?)


Tags: confluence-administration

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