Unwanted blank page in PDF

lporrel · Unread post by **lporrel** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:48 pm

I am getting a blank page in one of my PDFs.

I have "Ignore Blank Pages in PDF file" set in H&M. There are no extra returns at the end of the page--at least none that I can remove (and a hard return that I can't delete is, I think, the problem). In the PMD, Page Options, Top Level Heading and Level 2 Heading break on a New Page.

Here is what I think is happening. I have a topic that is half regular text and half conditional text. The regular text is at the top. The conditional text is at the bottom. There is one hard return after the <end> tag of the conditional text. This is required by H&M. The next topic starts with a Level 2 Heading (thus forcing it to start on a "New" page). I think the hard return after <end> plus the normal text makes the topic just long enough to require another page in the PDF. Of course, this extra page does not have any text. When I add a line of text after the hard return after <end>, that text appears o the extra page. When I remove several lines of text from the regular text, there is no extra, blank page. When I set the PMD, Page Options, Level 2 Heading so that it does not break on a New Page, there is no extra, blank page.

Unread post by **Tim Green** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:54 am

Hi Leonard,

What I'm not sure about in your description is when you say that a hard return is required after conditional text. There will always be a paragraph mark after the ENDIF tag, of course, but that is part of the paragraph you are including or excluding, there is no additional paragraph mark that would not be there anyway. What you may be able to do is to make sure that the final paragraph containing the ENDIF tag does not have any Space After set. In addition to this you should try reducing the height of your topic text placeholder in your MNL file to a maximum of two lines, and the band it contains should be exactly the same height as the placeholder. That may give you the edge you need to prevent bumping a new page.

lporrel · Unread post by **lporrel** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:35 pm

I think there actually is an extra paragraph mark. When I end a topic with a just a table, for example, the last paragraph mark sits adjacent the table. When I add another section, entirely enclosed in conditional text tags, there is an additional paragraph mark after the <endif>. This paragraph mark wouldn't be there were it not for the conditional text, and the line it represents seems to print even when the conditional text is not included.

Unread post by **Tim Green** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:23 am

Hi Leonard,

Rather than discussing back and forth here we need to see an example, otherwise we are at risk of being at cross-purposes repeatedly. Please mail a small demo project illustrating the issue to support, along with the MNL file you are using.

lporrel · Unread post by **lporrel** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:10 pm

Hi Tim.

What is the "Space After" setting and where can I find it? (I've searched the help and can't find it.)

Thanks.

Unread post by **Tim Green** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:11 am

Hi Leonard,

Every paragraph has a space before and a space after setting, just as it does in every word processor. It's part of the normal paragraph settings, or in your styles if you are using styles.

lporrel · Unread post by **lporrel** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:39 pm

That's what I supposed and what I am still confused about. The style for last paragraph in the topic is set to "Normal", and Space After for Normal is set to 0.00. So, I don't understand why "the Space After setting in your last paragraph is extending just after the page border and triggering an additional page. Set to 0.00, what's causing it to extend?

Unread post by **Tim Green** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:26 pm

Hi Leonard,

Hmm... I've just had another look at it and there is something odd going on. I'm going to run it by the dev team again, I'll get back to you on this.

Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:37 pm

Leonard,

It is the space-before and space-after that you have applied to that paragraph. It's a coincidence that this text just doesn't fit on the page. What you see printed on the next page is a blank line below the image that has a space before and a space after the paragraph. Remove the spacing for a test and try yourself: it fits on the page then.

lporrel · Unread post by **lporrel** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:26 pm

Thanks Alexander, but I am still confused. I don't see an extra space in the Page Editor in my project file, and there isn't one in the "Normal" style that I am using. Is there somewhere else I need to look?

Unread post by **Tim Green** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:52 am

Hi Leonard,

The extra space is in the paragraphs that are being excluded, that is the problem. In this position a single empty paragraph is always left over after the contents of the excluded material has been excluded and in borderline cases like this an extra page can be created if there are a few pixels too many. The only way to prevent this in such cases is to shave off an empty paragraph somewhere else on the page...

lporrel · Unread post by **lporrel** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:57 pm

Thanks Tim. That's what I suspected. It would be nice (but I doubt possible) if the "extra" paragraph mark could be included in the conditional text. Unlike the sample page that I sent, the page I was having problems with didn't have extra hard returns. It was the lenght I needed it to be to say what I wanted to say.