What to do with empty pages?

[CanAussie]

G'day,

I am working on my first written (software instruction) manual and am using Page Layouts.

I have each new chapter starting on page Right which, by chance I guess, is leaving a blank page on the left inbetween each chapter.

1. What can I do to avoid this or:
2. I thought about adding the text "NOTES" in a header on the blank layout page but wouldn't want to see this after the title page.

So, to continue with my number two thought, how do I force the title page to use a different blank page, one without the NOTES header?

CanAussie
Flare 4.2 and counting...

[DocuWil]

Hi CanAussie,
Here is an example how I use it:

chapter-setup.png

So, I always keep in mind: When do I want to force to start at the right side.
Looking at the example:
Channels Start right and disabled because I don't want an empty page: Channel Field Descriptions must start on a new page but it doesn't matter left or right.
Active channel log as I want Key channels to start at the right side I want an empty page if this page ends on the right side.

But, in other documents I did it different. You have to play around a little bit and if you have the clue, you know it for other documents you make.
Any way, this is the way I did it, but I am convinced there can be smarter ways.

[LTinker68]

You can create multiple page layouts in a project and apply different page layouts to different "chapters" in the TOC.

I have a pgLayoutTitle that has a title and a normal page. The title page contains a full-page image, the normal page has a small body frame positioned at the lower left of the page that ends up containing the copyright, company address, etc.

The chapters use another page layout called pgLayoutChapter that has first, left, right, and empty pages. The left page has the document name on the right and page number on the left, and the right page has the chapter name on the left and the page number on the right. The first page has only the page number on the right. The empty page has nothing on it (except a decorative banner along the left side).

The appendix, index, and glossary each have their own layouts because I hard-coded what's written in the footer of those chapters.

[KevinDAmery]

I'm curious as to why you're worried about having a blank left page before a chapter starts. People have been making manuals with blank left pages for many many years, and readers are not disturbed by it (well, most of them anyway ). (Some companies like IBM would put a "this page intentionally left blank" notice, but personally I always thought that looked silly...) Is there a specific problem with having an empty page?

[CanAussie]

G'day,

Thanks for the help.

In regards to leaving blank pages, I don't find anything wrong with them but my "editors" thought they looked out of place.

Cheers,

CanAussie

[SteveS]

I used to create pdfs for double sided printing, so the blank pages I included were important for layout purposes.

The chairman complained that I was wasting paper because of the blank pages when he printed the docs. He was printing single sided, of course.

I ended up creating a target just for him (he was the chairman, after all). Just goes to show...

[ljs_tech]

This might help ......
We switched from printed manuals to PDF manuals in 2001. Now we're adding online webhelp. The standard in our department was that first page of each section or chapter had to begin on an odd page for bound manuals as they were printed doublesided. The PDF manuals followed this standard.

We added a tasteful line ( <hr> ) smack dab in the very middle of the extra page before the next chapter began or at the end of the manual. When asked why there was a blank page with only a line in the middle, we responded "So we don't have to write This Page Intentionally Left Blank when you're printing the manual doublesided".

Now for our online PDF-from-Flare "manuals", we'll be following our standard again.
<hr> with a very large space above and break after
or
img with a very large space above and break after.
(still tweaking this one)