Wacky Word Footer issue

[ChristyPatton]

I am using Flare 4.2 and Word '07. This may be a "Word doesn't play well" issue but I need confirmation.

I have a printed document that consistes of a TOC, a welcome section, and 20 chapters with assorted sub-chapters. The TOC and Welcome each have their own Master Page. The 20 chapters have a Master Page called Main. Within the Master Page is a footer with page numbers. We used a table to keep an image, the motto and the page numbers lined up.

Chapter one consists of pages 3 - 19. In the entire book, only pages 10 - 19 have an issue with tabs inside the page number cell moving. See Error1.jpg, Error2.jpg.

From pg 20 forward the page numbers work correct, even when we get to the 3 digit page numbers. See correct.jpg.

Code: Select all

<td style="text-align: left;vertical-align: middle;padding-top: 3px;"><MadCap:variable name="System.PageNumber" />
                        </td>

What do I need to alter?

[ChristyPatton]

To be more specific, it is an indent and hanging indent tabs plus the column indicater that are causing the problems. What I don't know is why my code is causing this on one chapter but no where else.

[ChristyPatton]

I copied the master pages into a testing project. The exact same issue occurs. Do I need to delete the footers and start again?

[SteveS]

A thought.

Are you using different masterpages for your chapters?

I notice the issue with 2 digit page numbers is occuring only in one chapter (the first). The screenshot sugests that you have your footer laid out as a table (most people use tables to control footers, so there's nothing wrong with that).

[ChristyPatton]

Yes, the master page for the chapters is different from the master page for the welcome and TOC. There is only one master page for all the chapters.

In continueing yesterday, I created a TD classes for that particular footer table. It solved the problem on the even number pages but the odd is still giving me fits. I have one more thing to look at this morning. (I thought of it as I walked through the parking lot last evening) I have to mention that this problem has not plagued us throughout the entirety of the project. It just started within the last month. I do not know what I changed....

[ChristyPatton]

It absolutely has to be a Word issue. I have copied good fields in and it still has the problem. it is still on the even pages only and only in the first chapter. If I click the cell of the table column in the ruler it straightens out to the correct 100px. It has to be a problem with Word.

I'm done unless someone has a work around. I'll just have to have an additional post process step.

[KevinDAmery]

Just to be thorough, you mentioned that you created a class of TD to address the issue: did you apply that class to the cells on each of the Master Pages? (I.e. on the left page, right page, and front page?) Each page has its own unique header and footer, which allows it to format your output differently depending on which page type it is; this also means that changes on one page type don't automatically carry over to the other types.

[ChristyPatton]

I applied the TD class to the page number cell in each of the footer proxies; odd, even, first. (although only one cell is errant, even) I have the 3 footer proxies on one master page.

I have only one errant master page. And it is only errant in Word for one chapter. It works correctly for following chapters.

Does that answer?

[KevinDAmery]

Well, doesn't help me solve it but at least it confirms that something simple wasn't overlooked. You may be right, it could just be Word being Word....

[SteveS]

A suggestion.

Use the standard Flare printed masterpage and see if that works. I remember when I was creating masterpages strange things would happen and going back to basics and starting again was the quickest way to recover.

I agree the screwiness is probably Word's interpretation of the Flare output, going back to basics will give you a 'known' basic.

HTH

[ChristyPatton]

I think I will try this later today. I need to get a few other things accomplished first.