Hi Sarah,
This can be done, but it's not pretty...
I managed to accomplish something similar with a document where the
first page would list revisions, so the footer required a variable
height depending on how ever many previous revisions there were.
The method I used was to create a pagespec within a pageset specifically
for the first page. In this pagespec, I zeroed out the footer height.
Then I created a float to repeat once with a fairly good-size max depth
(about a third of the page), that was designated as a bottom float
within the pagespec.
Next, I created a pseudo-element to aggregate all the variable content.
Then I created a pseudo-element for this "pseudo-footer", that defined
the structure of the footer, included a usetext that contained the
pseudo-element for the variable content, plus page number, copyright
statement, all the footer-type stuff. Within this pseudo-element, I
initialized my float, width='col' pagetype='same' inline='never'.
The pseudo-footer pseudo-element should then appear within the source of
a usetext for the e-i-c of your root element (the one where pagesets
would be initialized, if you use more than one).
The end result is, when the document begins formatting, the float should
initialize on the first page only, and content should fill to just above
the float, but the height of the content within the float can then vary
from doc to doc.
Believe me, this was a royal pain-in-the-behind to set up, took me a
HIDEOUS amount of trial and error (I was required to implement this
solution after roughly a year of real FOSI experience, and no training).
I had nightmares about this FOSI for a couple of weeks after I finished
it. I'm better now...
Once I got this working, though, it's run like a champ, no matter what
we throw at it. I've never had to tweak this since. And it's worked
consistently from release to release, despite the float. I hope I
didn't just jinx that.
Hope this helps, I could probably forward you some code if you need a
more in-depth look.
Jason A. Buss
Programmer/Analyst - Cessna Aircraft Company
316.517.7749
jabuss@cessna.textron.com
"Sometimes I take humor seriously. Sometimes I take seriousness
humorously. Either way it is irrelevant."
-Malaclypse the Younger
