PDF - differen spacing between text styles of the same kind

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Petra Metz
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Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2019 9:39 am

PDF - differen spacing between text styles of the same kind

Unread post by Petra Metz »

Hi,
Can you please give me a hint?

I am using H&M version 7.5.2. I have set up my table of contents and defined styles in which I have specified before and after values. For the PDF output, I have defined a "before" value for the headings and for the text body.

But within one PDF, the spacings between the heading and the previous text body variate.

It doesn't do it with every heading of the same type. It happens quite randomly. At least I think it does. The worst case was that the previous text was printed on top of the next heading.

I checked my values several time and even increased them, but I wasn't able to solve this problem. Plan B is to add an extra line break. But that's not the nicest solution. I attached a screenshot with an example.

Do you have a hint for me where I need to change my settings?

Thank you very much.
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Tim Green
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Re: PDF - differen spacing between text styles of the same kind

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Petra,

What it actually looks like here is that you haven't defined any space at all above the placeholder for that level in the Topics section of your PDF template. So what happens then is that the space is entirely dependent on the presence of any empty paragraphs or paragraphs with "space after" set at the end of the previous topic.

I would suggest doing two things here: First activate display of paragraph marks in the editor (View > Program Options > Editor) so that you can better see where the space at the end of topics is coming from. Then edit your PDF template and configure the topic title placeholders to create space above them. How to do this is explained in the Manual Designer help in the Designing a Template > Topics Section chapter.
Petra Metz wrote: Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:57 am I am using H&M version 7.5.2.
The current build is 7.5.4 Build 4760. You can get the free update installer here:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html#oldver
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Petra Metz
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2019 9:39 am

Re: PDF - differen spacing between text styles of the same kind

Unread post by Petra Metz »

Hi Tim,
thanks for your suggestions.

Yes, I have the paragraph symbol activated, always.

In my Designer I have the following defined for the titles (see screenshot). So it should apply to all titles, and not just to some.

Do you have another idea why the spacing between titles and text body is not always the same?

I will try to updated my H&M version. Thanks for the hint.

Thanks, Petra
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Re: PDF - differen spacing between text styles of the same kind

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Petra,

Your topic text placeholder is MUCH too tall. It should only be about 3 lines high and the same height as the band containing it. Also, it is extending beyond the borders of the band -- that is why you are seeing the warning red outline. Adjust its position and size with SHIFT + Arrow Keys and CTRL + Arrow Keys until the red lines just disappear. Then it will be exactly fitted in the band. My guess is that this major error is causing at least some of your problems.

On the spacing in the bands for the individual topic levels: The spacing above the objects in the bands is inserted before the beginning of the topic, before the topic header. Space below the objects in the bands will only be used if the object itself extends down to the border of the band. Please study Designing a Template > Topics Section in the Manual Designer help carefully on this subject, particularly the information on vertical spacing in bands.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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bb_eight
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Re: PDF - differen spacing between text styles of the same kind

Unread post by bb_eight »

Hi! I am interested in this post as working on some white space issues evaluating a template I inherited. I cant find "Manual Designer\Topics\Designing a Template so any help locating it appreciated. New user and could not find on google or in search so thank you! Brian @alertinnovation
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Re: PDF - differen spacing between text styles of the same kind

Unread post by Tim Green »

bb_eight wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 10:27 pm I cant find "Manual Designer\Topics\Designing a Template so any help locating it appreciated. New user and could not find on google or in search so thank you!
To locate the Manual Designer documentation, open Manual Designer (via Project > Templates and Skins in Help+Manual)and then press F1. Then look in the Designing a Template chapter. Here is some basic information on editing PDF templates that may help you:

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.

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.

Page numbers:
Page numbers are included by default in all the standard PDF templates included with Help+Manual. You can edit or remove them as you like. To remove them just delete the elements on the pages that insert them. If you remove page numbering from the pages you will also want to remove the page number references from the table of contents in the Table of Contents section.

See the Manual Designer help for details on how to configure page numbering.

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.

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.

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.
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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