Flare inserting blank pages in front of tables in PDF output

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BrianAtInTouchHealth
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Flare inserting blank pages in front of tables in PDF output

Post by BrianAtInTouchHealth »

Hi,

I have a PDF target that produces unneeded blank pages after the first and secondary headings and in front of tables as shown in the screenshot below.
flare-table-error072219.png
And here's what the topic (Web Platform) looks like in the TOC.
flare-table-error-toc072219.png
I have tried adding page breaks in the TOC and in the table but nothing works. Also, this doesn't happen with small tables. The other tech writer here tried DIVs but that didn't help either. The only way I've been able to get around the problem is to create a PDF-only topic (no issues in the HTML5 output) and then manually break the tables up. Any ideas what could be causing this?

Thanks,
Brian
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ChoccieMuffin
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Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Flare inserting blank pages in front of tables in PDF ou

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

I suspect this is to do with how page-break-before and page-break-after are set up in the styles for your headings and also in the style for your table. Can you give us an extract from your stylesheet of those styles?
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
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BrianAtInTouchHealth
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Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2018 10:35 am
Location: Goleta (Santa Barbara County), CA
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Re: Flare inserting blank pages in front of tables in PDF ou

Post by BrianAtInTouchHealth »

ChoccieMuffin,

Here's the style for our print version of H1:

Code: Select all

h1
	{
		font-family: 'Century Gothic';
		font-size: 22pt;
		margin-bottom: 20px;
		margin-left: 0;
		margin-right: 0;
		margin-top: 0;
		padding: 0;
		color: #1dbecf;
		page-break-after: auto;
		orphans: 0;
		page-break-before: always;
		line-height: 25pt;
		font-weight: bolder;
		mc-hyphenate: never;
	}
And here's the style for our PDF table used above:

Code: Select all

table.PDFTables
	{
		border-bottom: solid 2px #000000;
		border-color: #000000;
		border-left: solid 2px #000000;
		border-right: solid 2px #000000;
		font-family: 'Open Sans Light';
		padding-left: 2px;
		padding-right: 2px;
		padding-top: 2px;
		padding-bottom: 2px;
		border-left-style: solid;
		border-left-width: 2px;
		border-left-color: #000000;
		border-right-style: solid;
		border-right-width: 2px;
		border-right-color: #000000;
		border-top-style: solid;
		border-top-width: 2px;
		border-top-color: #000000;
		border-bottom-style: solid;
		border-bottom-width: 2px;
		border-bottom-color: #000000;
		font-size: 12pt;
		page-break-inside: avoid;
		vertical-align: middle;
	}
Thanks,
Brian
Flare :flare: + Analyzer :analyzer: 2022, Central, Capture :capture: 7.0, Mimic :mimic: 8.1
ChoccieMuffin
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 2630
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:01 am
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Flare inserting blank pages in front of tables in PDF ou

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Ah.

On your table you have page-break-inside: avoid;

Try removing that and have another go. What that does is it tries very hard to keep the table together, and even if a table is too long to fit on a single page, it isn't smart enough to say "ok, let's start it immediately after the preceding heading and carry on for as long as we can before going onto a new page."

You might also want to try changing your heading so that you have page-break-after: avoid; to try to keep a heading with whatever follows it.

Do you use the setting that uses the heading levels in the TOC to define headings? (Can't remember offhand where that particular setting is.) It may be that you'll also need to do the same in your lower-level headings too.

Give those couple of tweaks a go and see what happens. You may need to do some further tweaks but that should get you started at least. Good luck, and let us know how you get on.
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
Report bugs at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.
Request features at https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx
BrianAtInTouchHealth
Propeller Head
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2018 10:35 am
Location: Goleta (Santa Barbara County), CA
Contact:

Re: Flare inserting blank pages in front of tables in PDF ou

Post by BrianAtInTouchHealth »

ChoccieMuffin wrote:Ah.

On your table you have page-break-inside: avoid;

Try removing that and have another go.
That did it! Thank you!

Brian
Flare :flare: + Analyzer :analyzer: 2022, Central, Capture :capture: 7.0, Mimic :mimic: 8.1
ChoccieMuffin
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 2630
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:01 am
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Flare inserting blank pages in front of tables in PDF ou

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

Happy to help. And I'm sure you'll be answering my queries, so it's quid (or should that be dollar?) pro quo. Happy Friday! 8)
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
Report bugs at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.
Request features at https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx
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