OBIEE Column Width problem in PDF Exports

Jerry Casey

There are many limitations to controlling what an Analytics-to-PDF export looks like.

I just wanted to share a solution to a very specific problem that was a result of my own habits.

I work in 11.1.1.9.5 and frequently use html to "stack" columns, in order to reduce overall width and white space, as shown in the highlighted columns, below:

The problem arises when I try to export to a pdf,

the column widths seem to randomly blow-up, no matter how many width settings I tried.

After countless attempts at CSS width controls, and width tags within the html, I stumbled on the solution.

A (lazy) habit of mine is to set a minimal column width, and uncheck the text wrap box in order to compact the output.

On-screen, the html tags in the stacked columns override the unchecked text wrap box. Apparently, the PDF export engine doesn't do the same.

After re-checking the text wrap box, the PDF export behaves itself: