Extra Line Spacing (since six days ago) in Output

[Fierce_K]

I'm in Flare 10, and I've been building my output an average of twice per day for weeks now, but suddenly there is a small amount of extra space between all of my lines, across all of the styles that I've looked at.
The left side of the screenshot is part of my PDF output today, and the right side is the matching part of the PDF output as of 4 days ago, which is the last day I was working on the project. I have compared styles between the original stylesheet (I imported from it months ago when I started this project) and the current one, and can't find any properties that have changed that could affect this, especially as the change has occurred across multiple styles. I've also already checked to make sure it's not a Medium issue either.

I already tried setting the Master Stylesheet to the correct one in the target (plus, I never had any issues with using the default before, as I only have one stylesheet in the project), but that didn't change a thing.

I also tried restarting Flare, restarting the computer, and cleaning the Output folder, to no avail.

Any suggestions on what to look at next or what could have changed would be appreciated.

[Psider]

Did you only just upgrade to Flare 10? I know when I upgraded recently there were a few changes to styles that Flare implements during compile. For me specifically I noticed extra space between the bullet and text for drop-downs and togglers - I had to remove some padding that's being added in the madcap stylesheets.

It's possible that some padding is being added to your styles through those stylesheets, especially if you didn't set a specific padding initially.

I found the Firebug extension for Firefox particularly useful for troubleshooting. You can see the stylesheets in play for an element, and where particular styles are being inherited from. It you're not familiar with what you're looking at, it can be a bit confusing, but well worth it when it starts to click. Hopefully this image gives you an idea of where to start if you haven't used this type of tool before (not a flare project, but just gives an idea of where to look).

Firebug.gif

[Fierce_K]

I upgraded to 10 a few months ago, but I've been using it with this current project for at least a month now, including compiling it quite a bit....never seen this issue in any of those earlier v10 compiles.

Thanks for the Firebug tip; I'll take a look at that this weekend when I can hook my computer up to the Internet again.

[whunter]

This is a shot in the dark, but did you recently change the settings on your computer so that the font size is larger than normal? I seem to recall that can cause issues with the PDF output.

[Fierce_K]

whunter: If you're talking about the settings to magnify everything on the computer display to 125%, I have had that setting on since I started using this laptop a few years ago. I know that this 125% vs. 100% issue affects a few things in Flare, but I haven't changed that setting recently.

Thanks for taking a stab at it though; I have a feeling this is going to drive me crazy for a while....I don't want to go back to each style and set the padding lower than what I've always had it in the stylesheet, but I feel like that's what I'll have to do if I can't figure out what causes this in the first place.

[NorthEast]

You mentioned the stylesheet was imported - if this was imported using a project import, and your import file is set to Auto-reimport before "Generate Output", then the original stylesheet could be changed by someone externally and then re-imported in your project automatically.

You could check the modified date on the stylesheet and see if that looks right. You could also temporarily swap the stylesheet to use an older 'good' version, just to see if it looks any different.

I'd also double-check the target is using the correct medium; it's easy to accidentally change drop-down list settings.

Alternatively, could someone else have changed something; e.g. do you use source control, or do other people work on the project?

Regarding the style issue itself; it's probably just a case of making sure you define things like the line-height, and margin/padding if you haven't already. Bear in mind that in CSS these might be inherited from a parent, so the style that appears to have changed may not be the root cause.

[Fierce_K]

I am completely baffled now... Based on Dave Lee's suggestions, I just used the parent (the older 'good' one) stylesheet from my previous project to compile the output, and I still see that extra spacing. I checked the date the parent stylesheet was modified, which was May of this year, so I haven't made any changes to it recently.

Is there something beyond the stylesheet that could cause this, like some mysterious setting in the Target or TOC?

I don't use source control, and no one else works on this project. The computer where I use Flare isn't even connected to any network of any kind (and hasn't been for weeks) at the moment.

Also, thinking back on it, I think I was mistaken to say that I imported the Stylesheet. I think what I actually did was make a template of the previous project, including the stylesheet, and used that to start the new one.

[NorthEast]

Try opening the older project and building the PDF from that - does the spacing look ok, or does it change in the older project too? Then you can determine if it's something you've introduced in the new project.

[Fierce_K]

Dave, I know this is not exactly what you suggested, but I just used Flare 8 to compile the output [no changes to any of the project settings, I just zipped it and opened it in Flare 8] and the spacing went back to normal.....but I'm still at a loss as to how to make it work in Flare 10 (especially since a few days ago it worked just fine).

[rjn572]

Fierce_K - Did you manage to resolve this issue?
I'm having a similar problem with extra line spacing in printed (pdf) output - looks the same as your example. I've also been through all the other comments in this thread.
My line spacing is set to "default" for my p classes.
I'm using V10.2.

[Fierce_K]

Sorry, no, rjn572, I have not resolved it, except by compiling my project with Flare 8. Using 8 is good enough for my purposes at the moment, since I haven't used any of the new features in 10 that would mess up compatibility with 8.

FYI, I am seeing the problem in Vers. 10.0.1, as I have not upgraded to V.10.2. I was actually hoping that the upgrade to 10.2 would help, but apparently not.

[ToddPh]

I had something similar the other day, though I hesitate to add it because I'm not sure what caused it. I found that the line-height setting on the body element had somehow been set to a value of 2. When I changed that to a value of normal things seemed to return to, well, normal.

May or may not have anything to do with what you're seeing, but it's another thing to check. But like I said, I cannot reproduce the scenario so I can't really call it a bug, and I have no idea what caused the change.

[rjn572]

I checked my line height and this is set to "default" for both print and non-print.
When I output to html the line spacing looks correct. When I output to pdf the line spacing resembles 1.5 to 2 x line height.

[ToddPh]

Hmm. That makes me wonder if the PDF target is set to use a different stylesheet.

[rjn572]

The pdf target is using the same stylesheet.

[rjn572]

OK so I've got a bit further with this.
I sent my project to Madcap Help Support for them to examine and they report back that the pdf line spacing was correct when they created pdf.

The project that I sent them had been creating extra pdf line spacing for me but before I emailed it to support I stripped out all the images to keep the file size down.
When I re-checked and created pdf it was correct for me as well.

I tested another project with images and I got incorrect line spacing (1.5 line approx.). I removed the images and I got correct line spacing. I inserted one image and back to extra line spacing. So for me it appears to be something to do with images in the project. I've sent support a new project with an image and will report back if I get a solution.

[rjn572]

I found the problem that was causing my extra line spacing. This was briefly suggested earlier in this thread.
My Windows 7 Screen display is set to "Medium 125% (default)". I changed this to "Smaller 100%" and the output line spacing with images is correct.

[cdiamond]

We are having a similar issue with extra line spacing in the PDF output. It was working one day, then not the next, with no change to the stylesheet.

p tag line-height is set to "normal" and "print" medium is in use.

Problem occurs on one person's machine, but not on mine, so I cannot personally reproduce it. I have, however, reviewed her set-up and all her project and content files and they appear to be identical to mine, so I am perplexed. (Presently, I am testing this with another colleague to see what happens on third person's machine. We are using files shared by SVN.)

[ChoccieMuffin]

cdiamond, this may well be the answer you're looking for.

I found the problem that was causing my extra line spacing. This was briefly suggested earlier in this thread.
My Windows 7 Screen display is set to "Medium 125% (default)". I changed this to "Smaller 100%" and the output line spacing with images is correct.

[cdiamond]

Thank you, ChoccieMuffin. You are right. The screen display % zoom setting was the culprit!