Sections in PDF Output

[Madeline]

hi,

I'm very new (waiting for IT to install the trial version for me) so just trying to get my head around how to get started. I'm looking at our current printed manual template (produced in Word and published to PDF) and trying to figure out how the elements relate to Flare components.

Our basic document structure is Cover page, TOC and then 9 sections each with section numbering 1.1, 1.2 etc, 2.2, 2.3 etc. I recall reading somewhere that it's better to publish straight to PDF and not to Word and then convert to PDF. Is that right?

I also read that the concept of section breaks is specific to Word and master pages/breaks are used to implement this in Flare. Does this mean that master pages/breaks are not available for PDF output?

Thanks
Madeline

[devjoe]

Master pages do not apply to PDF output. For PDF, you instead use page layouts, which define the page size, whether you have different first/left/right pages, and the placement of headers, footers, and margins of the body text region, and any other content which appears on pages outside of the topic content itself, for each page type. If you have sections or chapters in your document which must begin on even or odd pages, you can also define the blank page type which describes the content to be displayed on the blank injected page when necessary.

To create the breaks, open the properties for the TOC entry for the first topic of each section. On the Printed Output tab you can specify a chapter break or page layout break at the top, and the options for that break including the page layout to be used in the new section.