Re: [docbook-apps] PDF Chapter/Part Pagebreaks

[Bob Stayton <bobs@sco.com>]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2003 at 11:38:12AM +1100, Janeene Webb wrote:
> > Hi Janeene,
> > It is a common misunderstanding that the beginpage element
> > is used to create a page break in the output.  It doesn't.
> > That element is used to record where there was a page break
> > in a document before it was converted to DocBook.
> > 
> > However, you can insert a manual page break using a
> > processing instruction.  See:
> >
> > http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/200311/msg00098.html
> 
> Thanks. Although interestingly enough the beginpage element was actually 
> working to create a page break. I'll go through and correct them all though. 
> *smiles*
> 
> > Your need to turn off all automatic page breaking is not
> > easy to do in DocBook XSL.  Parts and chapters start
> > a page-sequence in the FO output.  A page sequence always
> > starts on a new page.  It isn't possible to turn that
> > off with a parameter.  You would have to customize the
> > template matching chapter in fo/component.xsl to make starting
> > the page-sequence conditional on the content of the part
> > container element.
> >
> > You can turn off the extra blank pages by not using double
> > sided output.
> 
> Have not been using double sided output since at times I seemed to be getting 
> up to 3 blank pages in a row. Am still having some trouble with blank pages - 
> between the end of the Preface and the start of the first Part, in fact any 
> Part (even with double sided turned off) appears to be forced onto an 
> odd-numbered page, with the resulting blank page before it if it would have 
> been on an even numbered page according to the document flow. The other spot 
> that has problems is between the Table of Contents and the Preface - it 
> appears to run under the same rule as the Part with the Preface forced into 
> an odd numbered page.
> 
> And yes, the customisation layer definitely has:
> <xsl:param name="double.sided" select="0"/>

In that case, I believe you are seeing a bug in
FOP that causes it to generate extra blank pages.
When I process my book which has several part
elements with the XEP FO processor and double.sided=0,
each Part always starts on the next available page, even
if it is even.

You might peek inside your FO file to see if the
fo:page-sequence for each part has this attribute:

initial-page-number="auto-odd"

It shouldn't.  If it does, then something is going wrong with 
handling the double.sided parameter.  If you don't
have that attribute, then the FO processor should not
be jumping to an odd numbered page.

-- 

Bob Stayton                                 400 Encinal Street
Publications Architect                      Santa Cruz, CA  95060
Technical Publications                      voice: (831) 427-7796
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                                            email: bobs@sco.com