Another "Break by Topic" question

[Dawn]

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to Flare, so please forgive me if this is a lame question. I've read through the other questions/answers about this same issue, but haven't found what I'm looking for.

I have a situation where some of my topics start with H2, some with H3, and some with H4. I can't, however, change my stylesheet to break before each of those heading levels because sometimes those heading levels are WITHIN a topic where I do NOT want it to break. (There's a reason for this that is too long and boring to explain. Suffice to say that it needs to stay that way.)

Bottom line is that when I print to PDF, I want my project to break by TOPIC, so that each new topic starts on a new page, regardless of heading level.

(By the way, I found that when my CSS was set to insert a page break before H2, the heading printed twice with a page break between them, but this did not happen for topics that started with H3. Weird, huh???)

Anyway, is there a way, without defining breaks in my CSS, to have my project break by topic when printing to PDF?

Thanks,
Dawn

[LTinker68]

In the Flare Help, go to User Interface Elements - How to Use Each One > Properties Dialog (TOC). There's something in there about specifying that a TOC entry start a new chapter. I think that's what you're looking for.

[Dawn]

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the quick response. I'm running Flare version 3.1.0 and don't see the option that you're talking about. Could it be named something else in my version or located somewhere other than Help?

Thanks,
Dawn

[KevinDAmery]

Another thing you might do is create classes for each of those heading levels (something like H2.pagebreak) then set the classes to add the "page-break-before: always" setting. You could then manually add the class to the first heading in each topic. This would allow you to keep the same styles as you have now but force a page break where necessary.

[Dawn]

Ah, Kevin, that's an exceptional idea! I will give that a shot. Thanks so much!!!!!

[Dawn]

Another thing you might do is create classes for each of those heading levels (something like H2.pagebreak) then set the classes to add the "page-break-before: always" setting. You could then manually add the class to the first heading in each topic. This would allow you to keep the same styles as you have now but force a page break where necessary.

Kevin, in regards to this, what I've found is that when the "page-break-before: always" setting is applied to a class, the heading prints twice when I print to PDF. It prints, then issues a page break, then prints again with the rest of the topic. Do you happen to know a way around that pesky little issue?

[KevinDAmery]

Sorry, no I can't, largely because I haven't seen it here. I have a different document structure here where all of my topics start with H1 and always have a page break before them.

You might want to look at the topic in the text editor just to make sure that there isn't anything weird in there - especially since you mentioned that you had the same problem when following Lisa's method as well. It could be there's something funky in the code of the page. If you're not sure how to read the code, feel free to post it here and we can take a look.

The other option would be to open a support ticket with Madcap.

[Dawn]

Sorry, no I can't, largely because I haven't seen it here. I have a different document structure here where all of my topics start with H1 and always have a page break before them.

You might want to look at the topic in the text editor just to make sure that there isn't anything weird in there - especially since you mentioned that you had the same problem when following Lisa's method as well. It could be there's something funky in the code of the page. If you're not sure how to read the code, feel free to post it here and we can take a look.

The other option would be to open a support ticket with Madcap.

Thanks again. I'll do a little digging on my own before I open the support ticket. Your help is much appreciated.

[LTinker68]

I'm running Flare version 3.1.0 and don't see the option that you're talking about. Could it be named something else in my version or located somewhere other than Help?

I found it in my help. Go to Help > Contents, then expand the last book ("User Interface Elements - How to Use Each One") then click on the "Properties Dialog (TOC)" topic.

[Dawn]

I'm running Flare version 3.1.0 and don't see the option that you're talking about. Could it be named something else in my version or located somewhere other than Help?

I found it in my help. Go to Help > Contents, then expand the last book ("User Interface Elements - How to Use Each One") then click on the "Properties Dialog (TOC)" topic.

Hi Lisa,

I guess you can tell that I'm a true novice when it comes to Flare. Thanks for your detailed help -- I found it now. I'll give it a good look and see if this resolves my problem. Thanks so much!

[Dawn]

I'm running Flare version 3.1.0 and don't see the option that you're talking about. Could it be named something else in my version or located somewhere other than Help?

I found it in my help. Go to Help > Contents, then expand the last book ("User Interface Elements - How to Use Each One") then click on the "Properties Dialog (TOC)" topic.

Lisa,

Is this supposed to work for PDF printing, or only for Word and Framemaker? I'm printing to PDF and it's not breaking, whether I choose to break by section or chapter.

Thanks!
Dawn