Page referrers as plain text

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Technical Tom
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2022 2:40 pm

Page referrers as plain text

Unread post by Technical Tom »

I want to insert unobtrusive references to other pages using plain text without icons. For example:

In the database table (p.31), modify data ...

Under Configuration - Publishing Options - Adobe PDF - PDF Layout, the wording Insert Page Referrers (page icon or text with page number) suggests that this is possible, but icons are generated even if I select nothing.

Is it possible to achieve my desired format?
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Martin Wynne
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Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: Page referrers as plain text

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Technical Tom wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:05 pm I want to insert unobtrusive references to other pages using plain text without icons. For example:

In the database table (p.31), modify data ...

Under Configuration - Publishing Options - Adobe PDF - PDF Layout, the wording Insert Page Referrers (page icon or text with page number) suggests that this is possible, but icons are generated even if I select nothing.

Is it possible to achieve my desired format?
Hi Tom,

Page referrers in plain text can only work if you use leading zeroes, e.g. "see p. 009", and a font which has a fixed-width for all numerics (most fonts do).

Otherwise it would need multiple passes of the compiler to re-do the line breaks and pagination calculations. Fixed-size icons are used so that the size of the referrer is known during the first run of the compiler.

I can't see any objection to leading zeroes, but it has never been offered as an option in H&M.

cheers,

Martin.
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Tim Green
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Re: Page referrers as plain text

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Martin,
I can't see any objection to leading zeroes, but it has never been offered as an option in H&M.
Interesting idea, but the problem is you would have to use a monospaced font for it, and that would stand out like a sore thumb. That would apply both for the entire text (See page 089) and if you just used it for the page number only. Suddenly having text in a different font for something like that looks more out of place than an icon, because it looks like an error.

It would only really work if you used special fonts with tabular figures (monospaced numbers within a proportional font). Those exist, but it would be very restrictive.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: Page referrers as plain text

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Tim Green wrote: Wed Jul 13, 2022 6:18 amInteresting idea
Hi Tim,

I have suggested it and wish-listed it several times over the years*. Most of the commonly-used fonts have a constant width for the numeric characters. But I don't see that it would matter very much if a slightly different font had to be used for them, if the font in use didn't have such.

*p.s. over 19 years that is. I'm amazed to discover that I am an easy 3rd in the list of number of posts, after you and Alexander, with nearly 3 times the next in the list. Where do the years go, and how can I have possibly typed so much? And now one more. :)

cheers,

Martin.
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