Dblatex has Processing Instructions (PI) which can modify the default document formatting. Usually these instructions alter the output formatting of specific DocBook elements, like table cells.

To alter formatting globally it is better to set an appropriate stylesheet parameter.

Processing instructions are written <?name content ?>. Most often content will have the form of one or more XML attributes with a value, as follows: <?name attribute="value" ?>.

The list of the available Processing Instructions are given in Appendix B, Dblatex Processing Instruction Reference.

Here is an example of a PI used in a table:

<informaltable><?dblatex table-width="autowidth.column: 1 3"?>
  <tgroup cols="4" colsep="1" rowsep="1" align="left">
  <colspec colname="c1"/>                 <!-- automatic width is applied to column #1 -->
  <colspec align="left" colwidth="*"/>
  <colspec align="right" colwidth="5cm"/> <!-- automatic width is applied to column #3 -->
  <colspec align="center" colwidth="3cm"/>
  ...
</informaltable>