min-height not being respected in PDF

[ajpeck123]

Hi,

I'm using Flare 11 - which is a good bit older than the version I normally use.
I'm trying to create DIVs to hold warnings and notes. Something that's not difficult to do...

However, although the HTML5 output is respecting the min-height setting, the PDF isn't.

The image is 81 pixels high, so I've tried setting the min-height to 100 px, thinking that would definitely cover it.

div.note /* top level, including image */
{
min-height: 100px;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-image: url('../Images/Note-bw.png');
background-position: 20px 2px;
page-break-inside: avoid;
padding: 0px 5px 0px 80px;
border: solid 1px #000;
}

div.note-text /* holds ALL the text*/
{
min-height: 100px;
border-left: solid 1px #000;
margin: 0pt;
padding: 5pt;
vertical-align: middle;
}

div.note-text > p:first-child
{
mc-auto-number-format: 'GN:{b}Note: {/b} ';
}

I've tried putting min-height in div.note and in div.note-text (it's currently in both)... no difference.

Does it not work in v11 of Flare?
Or am I just making some rookie mistake?

Works well in HTML 5:

HTML5.png

Doesn't work in PDF:

PDF.png

Thanks in advance...
Alison

[ChoccieMuffin]

Only just seen this, sorry for the late reply.

Have you added min-height to the medium that the PDF uses?
Have you tried using a physical measurement rather than pixels in the medium the PDF uses?

[NorthEast]

I'm fairly sure min-height doesn't work in PDFs. I know I've tested it in older versions, and a quick check in 2020R2 suggests it still isn't supported.

Some CSS doesn't work in PDFs (it isn't handled by the PDF engine used by Flare), but unfortunately MadCap don't publish any information on what CSS isn't supported.

[Nita Beck]

I urge all of us who hit PDF deficiencies like this to submit bug reports/feature requests (however you want to frame it) to get Madcap to step up and update their PDF engine. I have a case open right now with MadCap for which I suspect that Flare is not properly processing the inline-block property, which supposedly honors margins and padding on its own, instead treating it as a plain old inline property. I've been hitting my head on this one for weeks. It works great in HTML5 output but will not, will not, will not work in PDF.

[NorthEast]

Yep, report a bug as Nita suggests.

I think it would help greatly if MadCap produced some documentation on what CSS is known not to be supported by the PDF engine.
At the moment there is absolutely no information at all, which means you can spend hours experimenting to find out if a problem is due to your CSS or the engine itself.
I dread working on CSS for PDFs because I never know what CSS I can use, and it's almost impossible to troubleshoot.