Static page in pageset with Styler/APP

[ClayHelberg]

Hi folks--



I'm trying to set something up using a page set where the content flow
only appears on the right hand pages, but I need static content to
appear on the left pages. When I try to set this up in Styler, it almost
works, except that it gives me a warning if I try to have a left page in
my page set that doesn't contain a "main content flow" region. If I add
a very small main content flow region (so it exists but is too small to
contain any actual content), I don't get the error, but the formatter
stops on that page and I don't get anything that comes after. The only
way I can get the document to format is to include some actual content
flow on each page (both right and left), which is not what I want.



What I want is something like this: with this content:

A, B, C

1, 2, 3

Do, Re, Mi

You and me

I want output to look something like this (where each "box" represents a
page):

[ebenton]

This would probably be a FOSI-only solution but since I don't know much about APP, it might work there as well. You could do what some DOD-type books use for blank pages in FOS and put the words "THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK" on the blank page model. In our FOSI these words are part of an overstretched header on the blank page. If APP allows overstretched headers, you might be able to your static content as header text and make it extend downward to cover the entire page for left-hand pages.

[ClayHelberg]

Thanks, Ed, but that's not the problem. I can get the static content to
appear just fine. The problem is that Styler demands that I put at least
one line of flow content on every page. It won't let me keep all the
flow content on the right pages only.



--Clay





Clay Helberg

Senior Consultant

TerraXML

[tbihlmeyer]

Can you get away with setting something very minor on the page? Say a space in .001pt size?

[ClayHelberg]

Hi Trudy--



I wish it were that easy, but it has to be flow content, it can't be generated. And I can't just generate it on an element in the flow because I won't know ahead of time where the page breaks will be (so wouldn't know where to put the tiny gentext).



--Clay



Clay Helberg

Senior Consultant

TerraXML

[ebenton]

Like I said, I don't know much about APP, but if the left hand page headers were so big that they pushed everything off the page, the flow text would *have* to go to the next page. I don't know if the APP formatter will do that or if you could do that with the page model in APP, or how the flowtext goes from page to page in APP, so if this is not useful...never mind.

[ClayHelberg]

I'm not sure how that would work, Ed. The main content flow page region
has to have a defined size when you set up the page set, and if you make
the region so small that it can't accommodate any content, then
composition aborts at that page. AFAICT the page region size and
location is independent of how you have headers or any other page
regions configured, so I don't think trying to "push it off the page"
with an extra-long header would work.



--Clay





Clay Helberg

Senior Consultant

TerraXML

[tbihlmeyer]

Is there any way to "float" the static content on the verso page?

[ClayHelberg]

The problem is it needs to repeat, so it covers *every* left-hand page. I'm not sure how you would do that with a float?



--Clay





Clay Helberg

Senior Consultant

TerraXML

[ptc-1908075]

Hi Clay!

FWIW: FOSI has repeating float, which outputs the floated material at each page break until the end of the specified scoping element. Usually this is used for "Continued ..." and the like. However, a full-page float can be done. The float location should fill the available space on the page. If a full-page floatloc is specified only for verso pages, and if the material to be floated fills the flowtex/floatloc depth, then the floated material appears only on verso pages. The flowing text flows from recto page to recto page.

I tried this and it works. It seems like APP oughta have a similar capability.

Good luck!
Suzanne Napoleon
www.FOSIexpert.com
"WYSIWYG is last-century technology!"

[GarethOakes]

Hi Clay,

If this is to do with APP, you may be able to work around this with APP-specific overrides.

I'm not 100% sure how APP templates from Styler deal with the master page type stuff but APP supports two methods of building pages from master pages:

1. Autocopy

2. Document/Page Sequences

I would suspect that #2 is in effect here. The underlying mechanism for page creation is the same - in laymen's terms: for each page it detects if a (definable) main content stream has progressed or not. If there is no progression then it assumes the format is complete, otherwise it creates the next page and starts filling it with content.

There are any number of tricks to get things working the way you want. The simplest I can think of is to add what is called a "frame reference" to whatever the main content area is (the main content frame). The frame reference is simply some code that is called during format when that frame starts. Think of it like a "frame start" hook or callback. The code can be native 3B2script or Javascript.

In the frame reference you simply add some code that detects recto/verso (eg. if(formatting.currentPage.pageNumber % 2) blah blah). For the verso pages you would then get it to output whatever the static content is (formatting.addImage() ? ), followed by a hard page break (eg. formatting.recordEnd(2) ).

Or go with your idea of a "postage stamp" main content frame. You will still want a frame reference on that frame and do the recto/verso detection but simply force a page break for verso pages. That will be enough that the formatter will move to the next page and keep going. You would then place your static content in another frame using whatever method is appropriate.

Hope that helps spark some ideas.

Cheers,
Gareth

[ClayHelberg]

Thanks, Suzanne. I'm not sure if we'll be able to use this, but it's
worth a closer look.



--Clay





Clay Helberg

Senior Consultant

TerraXML

[ClayHelberg]

Thanks, Gareth, but unfortunately I don't really know much about APP
apart from its integration with Styler. So, most of what you're talking
about here is more or less Greek to me. Still, it's nice to know that
there are possibilities. We'll have to see if it looks like it's worth
it for us to dig into the guts of APP and try something along these
lines.



I was really kind of hoping there would be a formatter-neutral way to do
it just via Styler, but my optimism about that is waning...



--Clay



Clay Helberg

Senior Consultant

TerraXML

[ptc-1908075]

BTW: During this testing I found that a flowtext must have a depth of at least 10pt, which means you can't force a page model to be blank by setting its nomdepth to 0pt.



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[GarethOakes]

No, to the best of my knowledge Styler's design does not allow what you are asking.

-G