mnl and styles revsited

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Francis Langlois
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2015 1:05 am

mnl and styles revsited

Unread post by Francis Langlois »

I have read what I can and experimented with my output. I am more or less asking to confirm what I think I see and the reasoning.

Based on what I understand about the PDF layout tool, the headings within a topic maintain their formatting per H&M stylesheet. The topic heading is sent as plain text and takes its formatting from the .mnl file. Also the fourth level heading in the MNL does not create a page break.

That means if my topic heading is at a fourth position in the TOC, due to the organization of topics, it's topic heading will be 10p in my example below. Right? That's what seems to be happening.

mnl
Heading 1 - 16p
Heading 2 - 14p
Heading 3 -12p
Heading 4- 10p

in style sheet
Topic Heding and Heading1 -16p
Heading2 - 14p
Heading3 - 12p
No other headings.

Also if there are headings on the topic, we end up with

Topic Heading - 10p
Heading2- 14p
Heading3 -12p

It would appear to me that if we don't want to re-organize the TOC, to avoid this oddly small topic heading, we should minimize the difference in font size.

Because this file is shipped first as a CHM, those visual font-size cues are irrlevant. The additional need to ship the PDF creates this problem and is, I'm guessing, an expected trade-off?
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Tim Green
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Re: mnl and styles revsited

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Francis,

First, to clear up a misunderstanding:
Also the fourth level heading in the MNL does not create a page break.
That is just the way your specific template is set up at the moment. You can set page breaks independently for all the levels in your project in the Topics section of the template, and you can make the new pages odd or even as well if you want. (The "Ignore blank pages" option in Configuration > Publishing Options > PDF > PDF Layout must be off for this to work, to allow the insertion of blank pages.)

To set per-level page breaks select the Topics section and option its Page Options in the Pages menu or by double-clicking on a blank area of the page. Then you can set the page breaks for individual levels down in the table at the bottom of the Page Options dialog. Note that the single page break option at the top of the dialog is only for the entire Topics section, i.e. before the very first topic.

As for the formatting, you can format the font size of every topic heading in the TOC and the topics in the Table of Contents and Topics sections. This is done in the same way in both sections: Each level has one or more placeholder text objects that contain the variables that insert the title, numbering and page number for that level. You can format those text objects to define the font, font size etc.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Francis Langlois
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2015 1:05 am

Re: mnl and styles revsited

Unread post by Francis Langlois »

HI Tim,

Thanks for the response. My statement - Also the fourth level heading in the MNL does not create a page break - is just a fact.

I understand the placeholders in the MNL. The question that I can't narrow down and was not clear in stating is the question about the way the any headings in side the Topics would intersect with the properties of the placeholder in the MNL.

In my scenario - a fourth level in the TOC will be Level 4.

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Level 1 - 16p
    Level  2 - 14p
       Level 3 -12p
         Level  4- 10p: Heading1 16p is ignored and made 10p
                               Heading2 in topic is 14p
                               Heading3 in topic 12p
Is this expected behavior?
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Tim Green
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Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
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Re: mnl and styles revsited

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Francis,
My statement - Also the fourth level heading in the MNL does not create a page break - is just a fact.
This should be physically impossible. Either that, or something is seriously wrong with your template, or something else is getting in the way.

It's not possible to analyze this just from a description. We need to actually see it in action. Please mail a small demo project illustrating the issue and your .mnl template to support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and we'll check it for you.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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