MasterPage, PageLayout, PDF

[Nina Esile]

I'm creating a PDF and am fairly new at this single-sourcing thing.

I've got a help project created and it's working just fine right now. I can generate a plain old PDF from the help content, but I want to add headers, footers, TOC and so on.

I created a MasterPage, but I don't seem to be able to assign it to the project. When I open the target for the PDF, the Master Page drop-down has only (default) and Default in it, not the master page I created.

Any ideas?

GB

[Nita Beck]

Assuming you're using a later version of Flare (Flare 4.x or 5), you should use page layouts, not master pages, to set up the pages for your PDF output. It's in those page layouts that you can create title pages, left pages, right pages, etc., and can define the headers and footers.

You'll also need to designate which items in your TOC will start new chapters and which page layouts they'll use. In fact, many authors prefer to have separate TOCs for their Help output and PDF output (though I personally use a single TOC without problems).

Setting up PDF output is somewhat complicated, but the results are great (in my experience). It does take a bit of playing around to get things just right.

I suggest that you spend some time reading the various topics on page layouts in the Flare Help system. Start with the "About Page Layouts" topic. Or check out Flare's Printed Output Guide. You'll find a link to that guide at the bottom of any topic in the Flare Help system.

Hope this helps.

Nita

[Nina Esile]

Thanks Nita,

I had been working with the master pages and reading those very topics. I had them reversed in terms of what worked with PDF and what didn't. Now I've created a Page Layout, and I'm testing it out, but even though I have it assigned in the target in the Master Page Layout setting (I've edited the Default.flpl file), the PDF doesn't reflect what I'm setting up in the page layout. Gack! Can't get them to shake hands. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

GB

[navoff]

Thanks Nita,

I had been working with the master pages and reading those very topics. I had them reversed in terms of what worked with PDF and what didn't. Now I've created a Page Layout, and I'm testing it out, but even though I have it assigned in the target in the Master Page Layout setting (I've edited the Default.flpl file), the PDF doesn't reflect what I'm setting up in the page layout. Gack! Can't get them to shake hands. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

GB

Try setting the Page Layout to the chapter topics in the TOC file. These are usually the "books" in your TOC file. Do this:

1. Go to the Project Organizer
2. In the TOCs folder, open the TOC for your project
3. Right click a chapter topic (the topic with the book icon next to it) and select Properties (or just select a chapter topic and hit the F4 key)
4. Open the Printed Output tab
5. In the Chapter Break section, check Start a new chapter document.
6. In the Configure chapter using this Page Layout:, click the dropdown arrow and select your Page Layout.
7. If it's a normal chapter, you can leave the Page Type to normal. You'll probably also want to leave the Auto-end on 'left' page set to Enabled.
8. If you have un-numbered elements before your first chapter (like cover sheet, etc) or have a Table of Contents or List of (figures or tables) that will have a different numbering format (i.e. lower-case roman numerals instead of decimal numbers), then check the Reset to radio button and enter the number you want the chapter to start at and select the numbering style you want (i.e. roman, decimal, alpha, etc.)

You only need to do this for the start of a chapter. All the topics after the chapter start will continue with whatever you set for the first topic of that chapter. For succeeding chapters, you can leave the Continue from previous set in the Page Number section to have the page numbering continue on from where it left off with the previous chapter. Assigning a Page Layout to each chapter start, forces the chapter to start on a right hand page.

[Nina Esile]

Thanks so much for posting such helpful instructions.

I followed your instructions to the word, and still, I can't get the generated PDF to reflect anything I do to the flpgl file. It's quite frustrating. I made sure the files are there on disk and in the right place. I've assigned it to each of the books in the TOC. It's also assigned as the Master Page Layout. I don't know what other settings to check. I mean, if I click Edit on the Basics tab of the Target properties page, it opens my Page Layout, so I know at least part of the connection is made. I just don't know where it breaks down.

Also not sure about my next steps. Other than MadCap support, are there people who look at things like this?

[mattbnh]

I think the problem is that you have it assigned as a master page. try changing that setting back to default to let the page layout assignments in your TOC do the work.

[Nina Esile]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't fix the issue. It seems like nothing I do affects the PDF. The only thing that has an effect on the output is when I use a different style sheet. Fonts and such change. But I don't seem to be able to affect margins, headers, footers, and so on.

It's making me crazy because I can usually figure stuff out, if even with a little help.

GB

[KGaetz]

If you are single-sourcing Help and the PDF from the same project, I don't think you can use the Default page layout for PDF because the Help system is using default page layout. (I'm sure someone more expert than I can clarify this.)

In the meantime, if you have the Default.flpl file formatted the way you want it, I'd suggest this:

Close your PDF target editor page.
In the PageLayouts folder in the Content Explorer, copy and paste Default.flpgl and rename it something like PdfLayout.
Save everything.
In the Targets folder in the Project Organizer, open your PDF target and select the new PdfLayout as your Master Page Layout.

That should give you what you want. Then, check the Help files to see if the layout you applied to Default.flgpl are being applied. You will probably have to remove the formatting. I say probably because I haven't tested this.

Kathy

[navoff]

You could try creating a new Page Layout (Go to Project > Add Page Layout). Choose ChapterResizable.flpgl if you want to have the offset for binding (i.e. shifted to the right on a right-hand page or to the left for a left-hand page to allow room for binding). Choosing NormalResizable.flpgl will give you equal right and left page margins. Edit it to reflect your desired look and then select the new layout in the TOC file for each of your chapters as mentioned above. If you're not familiar with editing the Page Layout file, here are a couple of tips.

• To have header or footer elements on both the right and left side (i.e. page number on the bottom outside corner and document information on the bottom inside corner) start by adding a two column table. Then left or right justify the content as appropriate. Even though there is a properties dialog box for the header and footer frame to set up multiple columns, it doesn't work (at least it wasn't working in the Pre-Flare 5 versions of the program).
• Use Insert > Variable to add pre-defined heading or system variables. There are quite a few options available that add a lot of value (though, at present the FirstGlossaryPageHeading and LastGlossaryPageHeading aren't working--there's a bug in Flare that's being worked on).
• You can create different looks for a First page, Title page, Left hand page, Right hand page, an Empty page or a Normal page. For a First page, you may not want a header frame, just a body and a footer. For Right and Left hand pages, you can flip-flop which side of the page to put your page number (most professionally printed books have the number on the bottom outside corner). The default in Flare is to put it in the middle of the footer frame. A title page is good for when you don't want either a header or a footer. It's also the page style you'd likely choose when you disable Auto-end on 'left' (like when creating cover and legal pages that are only one page each and only used once in a manual). For an empty page, you may just want the header and footer frames (I think it defaults to no frames what so ever so an empty page would be completely empty without even a page number). The empty page is what is added when transitioning from one chapter to the next if there isn't enough text to end on a left hand page.
• When you select a page layout for a topic, if you leave the page type set to Normal, but don't have Normal page type defined in your page layout, it will use the Right/Left page types. If you do have a Normal page type defined in your Page Layout, that one page type will be applied to all the pages in the chapter. A First page type will only be applied to the first right hand (odd) page. The remaining pages in the chapter will alternate between the Left and Right page types and, if necessary will end with an Empty page type (if it's defined).

I'd start with something as simple as setting your page numbers to the outside corners for your right and left pages just to see if the page layout is being applied. You can go back in and tweak it once you know it's working.

[Nina Esile]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I have deleted the Page Layout and created a new one. Specified test headers and footers and so forth. Still doesn't work.

I have checked and rechecked all the settings so many times.

I feel like there's something very elemental that I'm missing, but I don't know what it is.

[KGaetz]

Let's start with a few basics:
What is in your headers and footers? When you say it's not reflecting what you've set up in the page layout, what have you set up?

[Nina Esile]

I hit F2 to edit the headers and footers. In the header, I just put the word test. In the footer, I put a page number.

Just discovered this, though, when I'm actually on the page in the editing window, if I switch the

[Nina Esile]

clicked Submit by mistake...
***********************************

I hit F2 to edit the headers and footers. In the header, I just put the word test. In the footer, I put a page number. I have since deleted this layout page and created another chapter test.

Just discovered this, though, when I'm actually on the page in the editing window, if I switch the Page Layout drop-down to Print Layout, it changes the look in the editor to the chapter page layout that I created as a test, but when I generate the PDF, it does *not* reflect the Print Layout.

[Nina Esile]

The PDF also does not reflect the 1" margins.

[KGaetz]

Sticking with the basics:
You have a PDF target and a PDF PageLayout, correct?
And if you open the PDF Target Editor, the PDF Page Layout is seleted?
And you are building the correct PDF target? (You can have more than one, so you might have the wrong one selected.)

[Nina Esile]

Yes. I have a PDF Target and a Page Layout. Page Layout is shown here.

Targets.jpg

And here's the assignment of the Page Layout.

Assignment of Layout.jpg

And when I build, I build the correct one.

Maybe you see something I don't?

[KGaetz]

Yes, I see an apostrophe in the Page Layout flpgl file name. Remove that (and the one in the Administrator guide) and try again.

[Nina Esile]

I'll give it a try, but the apostrophe is in the Target name, not the Page Layout filename.

[Nina Esile]

My Dear K. Gaetz,

Where do I send the roses?

Many, many thanks!

GB