RE: [docbook-apps] Controlling titlepage layout with XSL-FO (newbie)

[Jeff Beal <jeff.beal@ansys.com>]

You may also want to read up on absolute positioning using XSL-FO to see how
to use that.  I use the following XSLT to absolutely position some elements
on a cover page:

<xsl:template name="coverpage">
  <fo:block-container absolute-position="absolute"
    left="3in"
    width="3.5in"
    top="4.5in">
    <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="24pt"
      hyphenate="false">
      <xsl:value-of select="title"/>
    </fo:block>
    <fo:block font-weight="bold" font-size="10pt"
      space-before="10pt">
      <xsl:value-of select="bookinfo/releaseinfo"/>          
    </fo:block>
  </fo:block-container>
</xsl:template>

I've specified the left and top edges of the "block-container", but you can
also specify the bottom or right edges.  

(Conformance note: Absolute positioning works OK in XEP; I'm not sure about
FOP.)

Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Stayton [mailto:bobs@sco.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 12:07 PM
> To: K Reddy
> Cc: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] Controlling titlepage layout with XSL-FO
> (newbie)
> 
> 
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2003 at 09:41:23AM -0700, K Reddy wrote:
> > I have been able to customize the titlepage layout to
> > include the elements in the order I want. It currently
> > looks something like this:
> > 
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >                    Title
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >                   Subtitle
> > 
> >              Abstract
> > 
> >                                 by Author
> > 
> > 
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> > Copyright
> > Legal notice
> > 
> > The problem is that I would like to keep the copyright
> > and legal notice at the very bottom of the page. But
> > because some documents don't have abstracts, the space
> > is collapsed so that everything goes to the top half
> > of the page. 
> > 
> > I tried putting everything in a table and setting the
> > height, but this didn't work. Neither did setting the
> > height of the individual table cells. Currently, I'm
> > changing the space-after measurements myself for each
> > document, but my boss would like to set up a system to
> > automatically rebuild the PDF files whenever the XML
> > files are changed. Does anyone have any ideas?
> 
> The only way I know of to get something to appear at
> the bottom of a page is to use the fo:region-after
> area that is normally used for the footer.
> Since the titlepage doesn't have a regular footer
> (does it?), you could use that area.
> 
> You would have to create a new page-master
> to establish the area in the location you want.
> You can use the display-align property
> to align the text to the bottom of that 
> area.  Then you would need a new XSL template for
> your root element to use that page-master instead
> of the regular titlepage master, and to put
> the content you want in the fo:flow for
> that region.  I've never done it, but it should
> be possible.  It is entirely outside of the
> bounds of the titlepage mechanism built into
> the stylesheets, though.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
> Publications Architect                      Santa Cruz, CA  95060
> Technical Publications                      voice: (831) 427-7796
> The SCO Group                               fax:   (831) 429-1887
>                                             email: bobs@sco.com
> 
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