MadCap Software Forums

Is there a better way to handle content in a footer other than to use a table? We've found that it is difficult to have consistent alignment across our publication library b/c of the differences in content length. And we are constantly playing with the footer tables--wasting time.

We include the release number, title and page number (and sometimes internal).

How do others handle footer content?

Thanks!

My footer table style has an explicit column width set for each column. Content in each column is forced to stay within the column width, keeping the content consistent across all the guides (100+ Guides, 500+ Release Notifications).

I like to have my headers and footers extend slightly past the body content, and my body frame is 700 pixels wide.

When I created the header/footer table style, I made 3 column styls: Left, Center, and Right.

The Left column is 300 pixels wide, Left Justified.
The Center column is 50 pixels wide (only contains the page number), Center Justified.
The Right Column is 300 pixels wide, Right Justified.

Add the table to the Page Layout header/footer frames.

I've found the best way to work with Flare tables is to avoid creating a multiple use generic table style and then trying to get tables looking consistently by controlling the size from the XML editor (dragging the left edge to the margins). Instead, I create tables styles for specific functions with the column widths set in the table stylesheet. Just like my header/footer table stylesheets, I have them for button and field definitions, icon tables, note tables, etc. Even my naming convention for the table style includes how many columns are needed to use the table style appropriately. For example: "3C_Item_Description" is a 3 Column item description table. It makes if very easy for my writers to create consistent looking tables.

If you have a two- or three-column table in your footer and set the width on the table to 100%, then it should adjust automatically to your output's dimensions. As long as you don't specify widths on the individual columns, then it'll adjust them automatically based on the available space. Or you don't set 100% on the table but instead set each cell to 50% (two-column table) or 33 1/3% (three-column table) and they'll still adjust to the available space. That does mean that if you have a narrower output (e.g., pocket guide) then the text might wrap in the cell, but in that case, you'd have a separate page layout anyway so you could set the table width to conform to that page layout.

Thanks for the input. I'll try using Autofit to window, 100%, and adjusting from there.

Now the problem seems to be implementing this change across the library. I can't control how other users have set up their variables; i.e, they most likely aren't the same in each project. Therefore, I can't just copy in the new tables w/o having to update the variables for each project...tedious.

Anyhow, appreciate the help!

That's where you impose some constants across project, either by having a project template or by having a set of guidelines that tells the authors how and what to set up in any new projects they create.