RE: [docbook-apps] PDF Output: calling a different page master for a specific element

["Jeff Hooker" <Jeff.Hooker@pmcs.com>]

Hi Bob,

I'm using XEP, so the rx:flow-section container is available to me. The RenderX docs, though state that is must be a direct child of fo:flow, which brings me back to only being able to inflict my will on children of the root node rather than their descendants, and the elements I want to format could be buried an any depth in the document. 

This is the same issue I have with the approach in Docbook XSL; it appears to be limited to calling custom page masters at the same point that normal page-sequence-masters would be called, which I'm sure is useful, just not in my context.

I have successfully set up page masters and had them applied to the elements of the document that matter to me, but I'm still doing something wrong because XEP simply drops them from the document. I can see them in FO, but not in the PDF. I think my misunderstanding could be in how to restart a flow; restarting the flow is necessary for changing page-squence-masters, correct?

I feel like I must be missing something basic here. Is this requirement really so unusual?

Cheers,
Jeff. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Stayton [mailto:bobs@sagehill.net] 
Sent: September-04-13 3:02 PM
To: Jeff Hooker; docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] PDF Output: calling a different page master for a specific element

Hi Jeff,
If you are using XEP for your XSL-FO processor, you can use the rx:flow-section extension element provided by RenderX that is like a block that supports multiple columns.

If you are using Antenna House, you can use their extension that allows a axf:column-count property on an fo:block-container.

If you are using FOP, it is possible, but not easy.  As you found, the basic problem is that the page column layout is defined in the page-master, but you can only change page-masters when you start a new page-sequence. But chapters start new page-sequences, not tables.

There is a workaround for FOP. G. Ken Holman of Crane Softwrights Ltd. has published a method for breaking up a single page-sequence into multiple 
page-sequences with different masters.   His Page Sequence Master Interleave 
(PSMI) method introduces an intermediate XSL process to rearrange the pages in an FO file. PSMI is described at http://www.cranesoftwrights.com/resources/psmi/index.htm.

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jeff Hooker" <Jeff.Hooker@pmcs.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2013 2:36 PM
To: <docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: [docbook-apps] PDF Output: calling a different page master for a specific element

> Hi all,
>
> I'd like to call a specific page master for an element that contains a 
> specific attribute value. Essentially, if for long, narrow tables I 
> want to be able to call a three-column page master that prevents it 
> from flowing over a 100 pages when 33 would do. I'm having issues 
> figuring out how to call the new master, and a certain degree of 
> difficulty understanding the exact hierarchy I'm working with here.
>
> I've been puzzling over the references in Docbook XSL trying to 
> understand how to apply them to this case, but have so far come up 
> dry. Has anyone written up a good explanation of this somewhere?
>
> Cheers,
> Jeff.
>