Get Page Layout Editor to use print stylesheet file?

[Phlawm53]

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For Flare 11, IF a project has a separate print-only CSS stylesheet file, AND one is editing Page Layouts, THEN is there some way to get the Page Layout editor to use the print-only CSS file?

The project's primary Target is Flare 11's new TopNav skinless HTML5. Because TopNav's CSS includes a lot of stuff that makes TopNav outputs responsive, I'd like to work with all the TopNav CSS in the project's default CSS file, then create a separate stand-alone CSS for any print Targets.

So far, so good. But if I need to edit a Page Layout, the Page Layout editor doesn't "know about" the print-only styles. For example, I have CSS classes p.header and p.footer that are used only in printed page layouts. In the Page Layout editor those styles aren't displayed properly because the Page Layout Editor only knows about the project's primary CSS file.

Because the project's print Targets specify the use of the print CSS, the print output is fine. No problems with the generated output. That's not the problem.

The problem is that I've gone 'round and 'round trying to find some way to tell the Page Layout Editor to look inside the print-only CSS file. No luck so far.

Any ideas?

Cheers & thanks,
Riley
SFO

[Nita Beck]

Riley, I don't mean to appear impolite, but can't you just make one of your print targets the primary target?

[Phlawm53]

Riley, I don't mean to appear impolite, but can't you just make one of your print targets the primary target?

Hey Nita! That's not impolite — thanks for the idea.

I'll think about it. Doing that does feel like a circumvention rather than a true fix insofar as PDF output is a secondary output format relative to a project created primarily to produce TopNav. But circumventions are a recurring fact of life. (And not just for computer tools.)

Now that you've mentioned that idea, I just had the thought that IF I'm going to have a Page Layout editing session, THEN I might try setting Project —> Project Properties —> Defaults —> Master Stylesheet to the print-only CSS file long enough to work with the Page Layouts. I could then put the setting back to the real TopNav default when I return do doing the lion's share of the work with the TopNav CSS. (This might also be a good approach because I have over the years so refined my print CSS styles and Page Layouts that they seldom require much, if any, adjustment. So I wouldn't need to be constantly setting and unsetting the project's default CSS file.)

So thanks to you, I at this point have a couple of work-arounds.

I also wonder if a way to link the Page Layout Editor to a print-only style sheet might also be a sensible Enhancement Request given the possibility of lots of future TopNav projects…

Cheers & thanks 'gain, & hope all is well,
Riley

[Nita Beck]

I think you might be giving "primary target" more import than it's due. Rather, by setting a primary target, you're telling Flare how you want it to show you stuff in its UI.

I readily change my primary target, at any given time as my editing needs change. If I want to visualize my content--while editing--as online content, then I'll set the primary target to one of my online targets, so the XML Editor (just as an example) will default to showing me content as it will appear in that target. In other words, the stylesheet and medium for that target will "kick in". If I want to visualize my content while editing as it will appear in a print target, then I'll set the primary target to that print target, and that target's stylesheet and medium will "kick in".

[Phlawm53]

If I want to visualize my content while editing as it will appear in a print target, then I'll set the primary target to that print target, and that target's stylesheet and medium will "kick in".

Yeah, there are a couple of ways to indirectly skin the cat. But it'd be nice, too, if I could just tell the Page Layout Editor where a given project's print-only CSS file is.

My larger thought is that TopNav represents a new workflow that no one could have imagined back when they were building the ultimate help authoring tool (HAT). So it's not unexpected that emerging capabilities and requirements are placing new demands on the CSS design and management tools that weren't originally necessary. Or even of value.

As I see it today (which may not be how I see it tomorrow), the sophistication and relative complexity of TopNav's CSS has led me to think I'd like to set the print portion of any TopNav project to the side of the main project. An addition to the Page Layout Editor might make that a bit easier going forward…

Cheers, thanks 'gain, & have a SUPER weekend!
Riley
SFO