RE: [dita] Recommendations for "page break" requests?

["Rob Frankland" <robf@rascalsoftware.com>]

Don

 

This one is tough. I think the most you can do is set a widow and orphan setting for a topic type. If you open it beyond that you open Pandora's box on all types of tweaks required for really sophisticated print solutions. I do not believe such control is possible in the XML world. The only thing that comes close is Advent 3B2's high-end solution.

 

Rob

Rob Frankland, President & CEO
Rascal Software
1511 3rd Ave, #523
Seattle, WA 98101
206-624-7300

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From: Don Day [mailto:dond@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 3:17 PM
To: DITA TC list
Subject: [dita] Recommendations for "page break" requests?

Yes, I know the mantra, "XML promises separation of presentation from content." Yet our users still ask for page breaks, line breaks, and other presentational nudges that just can't be separated easily into a stylesheet.

Processing Instructions and other direct mods in a source topic are considered harmful; if the topic is reused elsewhere, the instruction could cause mischief.

So while this is a general question, it still has bearing on work we might do down the road on a recommended style mechanism for DITA:

>>>> For page and line breaks in particular, what do you do, and what do you recommend?

Regards,
--
Don Day <dond@us.ibm.com>
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
IBM Lead DITA Architect
11501 Burnet Rd., MS 9037D018, Austin TX 78758
Ph. 512-838-8550 (T/L 678-8550)

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