How can I change the alignment of Table style in docx template so that the table head is also affected?

[skr2005]

Hi everyone, I am new to pandoc. Recently I encountered a problem when trying to make a docx template to be used into --reference-doc arg. One of what I want is to make the tables themselves (not the text in them) align in center. I find issue #6707 describing the method.

However, when I used Word to modify the Table style in the template generated by pandoc -o custom-reference.docx --print-default-data-file reference.docx, the table in the template become this:

The alignment of Table seems not effective on the head. I tried using Shift+F1 to inspect, and I find that although the Table style is applied on the head, the head has another left-align attribute ovewriting that, and it seems that the attribute does not come from any pre-defined style; the attribute is defined on and only on the head.

I confirmed that when I convert some markdown file to docx using the buggy template, the generated docx also has the same problem: table bodies are center-aligned but heads are not. Even after I force the head in the template to be in center by just setting the style on it, the problem persists in converted docx.

Maybe I misconfigured something, or this is a bug. Anyway I hope someone can help me. Thanks in advance!

pandoc.exe 3.7.0.2
Features: +server +lua
Scripting engine: Lua 5.4

[rnwst]

You should be able to remove the left alignment attribute from the header row, then the center alignment of the table should take effect. I ran into the same problem a while ago and wrote about it here. If you still have issues, please attach your reference.docx so we can have a look at it.

[skr2005]

After setting alignment specified for "Header row" my problem is solved. And the information in your linked post is very useful! Thank you for your help!

[jgm]

Is it our default style that sets this left alignment for the header row? If so, perhaps it shouldn't?

[rnwst]

It does appear to be caused by our default style. I'll submit a PR shortly.

[rnwst]

(Annoyingly, it looks like the header row's styles cannot be 'unset' in Word, only changed - one needs to manually edit the XML instead. What a crappy word processor.)

[rnwst]

See #11022.