Print Manual Designer - Multiple Background Pages

[Andre.Greeff]

While I was working through a few things with the designer earlier today, I had an idea for a more fluid element layout setup, using the current "Master (Background)" tab as a point of inspiration. Essentially my idea involves a series of background pages, which are enabled/disabled for each normal page (as the "Master" page currently is).

To try explain this a bit better: In my template I've ended up with my custom printed page header and footer configured on the master page, then simply disabled the use of the master background page on my Cover, TOC and Top Level Intro pages. This way when anything needs to be altered in the header or footer displayed on each of my content pages, it only needs to be updated in one place instead of three or four.

Afterwards, this got me thinking, wouldn't it be nice if we could have multiple "background" style pages? If these are managed as special pages (like the current "Master (Background)" and "Empty Pages" are currently), then these special pages could be listed as background options for each normal page.

For example:

• Cover Branding (Background) - containing the usual 'cover' elements.
• Header and Footer (Background) - slim header and footer sections with variables and page numbering.
• Extras (Background) - internal-only details to be included on the 'Internal Cover' page.
• Internal Cover - first 'normal' page template, uses both 'Cover Branding' and 'Extras' backgrounds.
• Cover - uses only the 'Cover Branding' background.
• TOC - uses only 'Header and Footer' background.
• Topics - as TOC, only the 'Header and Footer' background.

Using this page list, if any of the normal pages have multiple backgrounds selected, then for the sake of background colours they should be applied in the order in which they are listed in the designer. This means the 'Internal Cover' page would first take the contents of 'Cover Branding', overlay the contents of 'Extras', then use that as a background. The designer already allows for extra pages to be created, and allows the master background to be enabled/disabled, so half of the functionality is already there...

Now for my two biggest questions: does my suggestion make sense, and is there any chance of getting something like this..? It would really do wonders for the Print Manual Designer's versatility.