Re: [xsl] An XSL strategy for mixing regular and foldout pages

Subject: Re: [xsl] An XSL strategy for mixing regular and foldout pages
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:18:55 -0400
Dan,

If you have a foldout element you could certainly move all your foldouts to the back of the book without rearranging their order in the source: during the regular traversal, suppress its appearance (perhaps including a reference instead: "See foldout on page X"); then after the regular page sequence, if you have any foldouts, start a new page sequence with the new page size and place the foldouts there.

To do this "right" would require some features XSL 1.0 doesn't provide (TMK), such as "constraint-based formatting" ("make the page big enough to hold this content"). Further developments in the XSL space may give us these, but 1.0 is designed for "content-driven" (not "layout-driven") formatting, and this pushes the line considerably.

I hope that helps. Maybe other FO practitioners have other ideas or neat solutions.

Cheers,
Wendell

At 02:49 PM 8/22/2006, you wrote:
First I'm wondering how difficult it might be to create a stylesheet that handles normal book size pages, but then can randomly (when an oversized table or figure is found) insert a fold out or extended page. I need to output PDF.

It seems like the page layouts are assigned to a section and I could change a whole section to a new size or layout, but interleaving a larger page seems impossible with that process.

If this is possible, how did you control the triggering of the new page size? I have control of the DTD so I can add elements or attributes where I need to - maybe the trick is just to create a <foldout> element that wraps the normal graphic or table and that becomes my trigger. Is there a better way to do this? My only other thought is to move all the foldouts to the back of the book, but I don't think I have control of the organization of the material itself.

..dan

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