PDF layout

[David Navratil]

Hello,

Is possible to customize PDF layout? I need to start new topic every time at new page. Is here a way how to do it?

Thank you for answer, David.

[Tim Green]

Hi David,

ACCESSING AND EDITING PDF TEMPLATES

All the layout information for PDF is stored in the PDF template you use to generate your PDF output, which is edited with the Help Manual Designer program included with Help & Manual. You start it by selecting the Manual Designer option the Project tab in the main Help & Manual program.

To learn how to prepare your project for PDF output and edit PDF templates with Manual Designer please study the Publishing > PDF and Printed Manuals chapter in the Help & Manual help. This will give you all the basic information you need about accessing PDF templates, applying them to your projects and opening them in Manual Designer.

Once you have template open in Manual Designer press F1 to view the separate help file of Manual Designer. This file includes a tutorial that guides you through the basic steps. Here are a few pointers for key issues that crop up often (these instructions are for Manual Designer):

Editing PDF templates:
The standard templates you can start with are stored in the /Templates subfolder in the Help & Manual program folder. You cannot edit anything there (that is why we put the originals there, so they don't get changed). You need to make a copy of the template you want to edit in your project folder and edit it there.

Selecting edited PDF templates:
When you publish, select PDF as your output format in the Publish dialog, then select your edited template with the Print Manual Template option in the Publish page.

Setting page breaks:
You can set whether each section of the PDF starts on a new page in the Page Options for the section. You can set page breaks for each topic level in the Page Options for the Topics section. These options are in the page breaks table at the bottom of the Page Options dialog.

Turning sections on and off in PDF templates:
Select the tab in Manual Designer corresponding to the section you want to activate or deactivate. Then Select Page Options in the Pages menu and turn the "Print Section" on or off to activate or deactivate the section.

Page size:
Select the Master (Background) section, then select Page Options in the Pages menu to select the paper side and Portrait or Landscape orientation.

Margins:
Select any section other than "Master" and open the Page Options in the Pages menu. Set the margins and click on the option "Apply margins to all sections" to set the margins for the entire document. You can then change the margins for other individual sections if you need. Use the "Flip Margins" option to adjust the margin settings to mirror images for left and right pages.

Headings of topics and in the table of contents:
These are edited and styled in the Topics and Table of Contents sections in the PDF template. Each section shows six levels of headings, which represent the six levels of topics supported in PDF. You can adjust the style of headings on each level by formatting the placeholder text items containing the heading variables accordingly.

Headers and Footers:
The easiest way to have them in exactly the same place on the page in your entire project is to put them in the "Master Page" section and then activate the Master Page as the background for the page in all the other sections (in Pages > Page Options for each section). You put text objects in the top/bottom margins and use the available variables for inserting things like the title of the project, page number etc. (see the help for details).

For headers or footers containing the title of the current top-level chapter you need to turn off the Master page in the Topics section and manually insert header or footer objects there, because the topic title variables will only be valid in that section. You insert the <%HEADING1%> variable to insert the name of the current top-level topic title.

IMPORTANT: You can only insert the top-level topic title in the header or footer. If you insert variables for lower levels you will get errors, because those levels do not exist on all pages. Only the <%HEADING1%>variable is always valid.

TOC and topic heading numbering:
Numbering for these items is set in the Table of Contents and Topics sections of the template. For details see the "Table of Contents" and "Topics Section" chapters in the "Designing a Template" section in the Manual Designer help.

Activating/deactivating pages in PDF:
Select the tab for the section you want to activate or deactivate and then select Page Options in the Pages menu. Select or deselect the "Print section" option to include or exclude the section/page in your PDF.

Adding new elements on the page and editing elements on the page:
To add a new element select a tool in the toolbar and click or drag on the page in approximately the position where you want to insert it. Double-click on an element on the page to edit it.