index, 2 columns, top-of-the-columns issue

[garyjgeoaccess]

I don't think there is a way to fix this, but maybe I'm not seeing an easy solution.

Each of our docs has an index. I've added 20pt margin-top to the alphabetic headings (p.IndexHeading) so there is some separation between the last entry in each alphabetized group and the following heading letter. However, this means the heading "A" is moved 20pt down from the top of the left column and the right column is positioned HIGHER on the page, which looks sort of strange. Here is an example:

indexcolumns.png

Admittedly, this is not a big problem. But you'd think this would be fixable.

Maybe Flare should use a different style for the letter A (maybe it'd be called p.IndexHeadingA), while all other letters use p.IndexHeading.

But as is ... there isn't a way to fix this column alignment issue, is there?

Or maybe this is additional fodder for the need in Flare to be able to specify two margin-top values: one would be the conventional margin-top, which would be used when the text appears within a page, and another top margin value would be used if the text appears at the top of a page or column (maybe it'd be called mc-margin-topofpage, or something like that).

That is, margin-top might be 20pt but mc-margin-topofpage might be 0pt. But wouldn't you always set the topofpage value to zero? So maybe it could be a target property instead? Maybe it'd be a simple checkbox on the Printed Output tab: "Remove top margin from paragraph/heading at top of each page/column"?

Your thoughts?

[Doug Eaton]

Another way to resolve this is to move the "Index" title flush left. That will mask the effect you mention.

[forfear]

IMHo that's a nice Index page layout!

[garyjgeoaccess]

Thanks, forfear.

It's a simple layout. Still it required some tweaking in MadCapBlaze.css to get it to work right ... which shouldn't have been necessary. MadCap's methodology for index layout is somewhat problematic.