Issue with Table Sizing post-2018.2 Update

Question

Hi,

I'm working on a report that will contain a table with a varying number of columns. For aesthetic reasons, I'd like this table to always have the same width, roughly the same size of the page, something like this:

Spoiler

However, while planning to move systems from Alteryx 11.5 to the 2018.2 version and updating the visual layouts, I've run into some weird display issues in nearly all my reports which make use of tables and visual layouts. I then render this visual layout output, joined with a header and footer using to a PDF using the Render Tool

When using the updated Designer to run these, my tables look like:

Spoiler

The settings in the Table tool I'm using are below:

Spoiler

The table overall is set to Fixed, and each of the columns is set to automatic, since their contents have varying length, not to mention there will be a varying number of columns.

I've tried playing around with the table settings, changing it to percentage as well, or using different numbers instead of 10 inches. However, when using either Percentage or Fixed size, the above table is the output regardless of what numbers I put in.

If I set the table to automatic as well, I get something workable which at least displays each entry in full, but is not really aesthetically pleasing, because it appears left justified and not centered on the page:

Spoiler

Has anyone else encountered this issue, or know of any potential solutions?

Thanks in advance!

tcroberts · Accepted Answer

For anyone else with a similar issue. You can fix this by running the workflow with some sample data which is smaller than the page, and then stretching out the table in the Visual Layout tool to cover the whole width.

I had figured that when setting percentage to 100%, this would happen automatically, but for some reason it didn't for me and doing this has fixed it in all my problem cases. I suspect the problem comes from the Automatic column settings.