PDF Page Orientation problem

[SDilg]

Good afternoon,

I am hoping someone can help me out with a PDF page orientation problem that I am experiencing.

I have a very small project with only about a dozen topics. I would like it to begin in portrait but to have the final four topics only printed in landscape format. I am using this as a 'practice' project because eventually I want to use the PDF export for docs of 300+ pages, mixed orientation.

I have created three different page layouts for my document: one for Front matter and a second called 'Chapter' (both portrait), and a third called 'Reports' (landscape). I have set up the page layout Page Properties accordingly. In my table of contents, in the properties of the first of the four reports that I want landscape, I selected the "Start a new Chapter Document" checkbox and selected the 'Reports' page layout (this is what I gathered I should do based on the help).

For each page layout I have both 'right' and 'left' pages set up. In the properties for that same topic I selected "Right" since logistically a landscape format could never start on the left hand side (and the online help said 'Normal' should only be chosen if you don't care which page layout is used). My 'First Page' of my 'Reports' layout is also set to be landscape. The remaining three topics are not "Start a New Chapter" but they do show the Reports page layout selected in their properties.

In spite of all this, the entire doc is coming out portrait in the PDF output!! Interestingly the text and graphics, headers and footers for those past four topics are all formatted as for landscape. Everything is 'chopped off' at the right side. But every page is portrait.

Sorry for the long post, trying to include all the info.

Are there any settings I may have missed?

Thanks,

S. Dilg

[mattbnh]

I have not had time to try this, but I have a guess. Have you checked your distiller settings?

On mine the default setting for General>Auto-Rotate Pages is Collectively by File. The Adobe help says this means that majority rules ("Rotates all pages to match the orientation of the majority of text in the document").

Maybe if you set up a PDF definition and chose "Individually" it might work.

Hope this helps.

[SDilg]

Thank you for your reply mattbnh,

I appreciate your help. Unfortunately this did not solve the output problem.

To give more details, in case they might help:

I accessed the Distiller Settings via Acrobat 8 Professional which is the version of Acrobat that I have. After adjusting the default settings to "individually" I was forced to change the name of the settings and I took the default suggested name of Standard(1). That then became the default 'Default Settings' option. I thought I was all set. But when that did not solve it (pages still coming out all portrait), I did not really know what to do. So I also tried going into the Acrobat Edit > Preferences and changing the settings associated with "Convert to PDF". Just trying different things in desperation, here. I changed the settings for both the 'Postscript/EPS' and 'XPS' options to Standard(1), since I was not sure which category Flare would fit into. Unfortunately it still did not work.

If you happen to think of anything else I should try please let me know!

Thanks again very much,

S. Dilg

[mattbnh]

Well, I created a new project using the Mybook project template, changed the chapter page layout orientation to Landscape, created a Framemaker target. Flare's Printed Output Guide essentially implies that you need do nothing else.

And they appear to be right, for a Frame target. I build the target and the frontmatter was Portrait, while the chapters were landscaped, just as expected, and easy as pie.

I built the PDF target for the same project, and the page shape was Portrait for all pages, with the chapter pages truncated to the right. Just like your results, insert sad face.

So either there is a bug in the PDF generation, or there is an Acrobat parameter that Madcap needs to tell us about.

The kicker is that I tried multiple builds with different Distiller settings, one specifying an 11x8.5 page, another 8.5x11, and I have tried all three auto rotation settings. All the results were the same, matching your results.

So that sounds like it is not Acrobat.

My opinion, I think you found a bug and should report it.

Keep us posted.

Thanks.

[KevinDAmery]

In case you need it, the bug submission page is here:

https://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

[SDilg]

Thanks Matt and Kevin,

I will make sure when I submit the bug I summarize all results that have been found.

I appreciate your help and efforts! I suspect this issue will be of concern to other users as well.

Thanks again,

S. Dilg

[NickC]

Any luck with this issue?

I have the same problem generating PDF output directly in Flare 4.0 (i.e. not going through FrameMaker). I suspect something's not quite right on MadCap's side... I'd also be happy to send a bug report.

Cheers !

[SDilg]

Hi NickC,

Sorry for the delay. I was on vacation last week for our Thanksgiving holiday.

I did create a bug report on this, and was told by a support representative that it would 'hopefully' be fixed in the next release. However I think it would be a good idea if you also submitted a bug report, if you are willing to spend the time....

Thanks!!

-SDilg

[SDilg]

Hi Nick,

I was just wondering if you had tried your PDF output again, since the recent updates? I am still experiencing the same problem with output for the same project, but maybe there is some setting I do not have set correctly....

Thanks,

S. Dilg

[NickC]

Yes I've had some success but not by setting the page properties to landscape in the PDF page layout.

In the PageLayout Page Properties dialog , click the basic tab, set the Page Size to (Custom) and set the custom width to 29,7cm and height 21 cm (for A4 landscape - don't have inch equivalents to hand). I leave the Orientation to Portrait. The result with Flare 4.1.19 is that the PDF is generated in landscape as required.

So for me that's OK. I've had to regress to 4.1.19 because 4.1.40 has a PDF generation problem (talked about in a separate thread).

HTH

Nick

[SDilg]

Thanks Nick,

It's been a very busy month and I haven't been checking up on the forums.

I tried the custom page setting and it works great!! Thanks very much for your reply.

S. Dilg

[NorthEast]

Thanks also for the solution.
I was going mad wondering why this didn't work.