This is the fourth installment in a series of articles outlining my suggestions for developing a Flare 4 print publishing strategy. Each article represents a stage in the process. This article provides suggestions, tips, and key points for successful print publishing with Flare. It is not a replacement for Flare’s comprehensive online help and how-to guides.
Recommended prerequisite reading:
Since the advent of desktop publishing, various software applications have used master pages to control the placement of page elements. Using tools such as Adobe FrameMaker® and InDesign®, designers routinely set up master pages to create complex layouts.
The first three versions of MadCap Flare™ followed a similar design model. Master pages controlled the appearance of both online and printed output. With the release of Flare 4, the model is significantly expanded. You can still use master pages to establish the appearance of your online help topics, but you now have dedicated page layouts to control the appearance of printed output.
Page layouts provide far more flexibility for printed documents than master pages. You can create and manage layouts ranging from simple, single-sided documents to double-sided, multi-sectioned book structures. You can set up separate sections for front matter, a table of contents, lists of figures and tables, appendices, a glossary, and an index.
In the third article of this series, I explained that you need to build a book structure for printed documentation by adding a series of print-only topics to your project. If you have already completed that step, you are now ready to use page layouts to control the appearance of the book. Once you have designed the layouts, you can assemble the book by linking a specialized, print-only TOC file to both the print-only topics and the layouts.
Goal of this stage: To design book sections using page layouts
This article is simply an introduction to page layouts and the role they play in the Flare print publishing process. For more detailed information, see the Relevant Flare help topics section.
Understanding page layouts
A page layout is yet another Flare project asset that you can re-use as a template. Each Flare project includes a default page layout (Default.flpgl).
To view the default page layout, follow these steps:
- Display the Content Explorer.
- Open the Resources folder.
- Open the PageLayouts subfolder.
- Double-click the Default.flpgl file.
The default page layout is designed for simple, one-sided documents. If you do not intend to produce double-sided books with multiple sections, you may find that this simple layout meets your requirements for printed output. The layout includes specified areas for a page header, body content, and a page footer. A page thumbnail appears in the upper right, representing a page type. Since this layout is not used for a double-sided book, the displayed page is classified as a Normal page, rather than a left-facing or right-facing page.
Adding a page layout to a project
Flare does not limit the number of page layouts that you can include in a project. You can add as many as you need.
To add a page layout, follow these steps:
- Select the following menu command: Project > Add Page Layout
- In the Add New Page Layout window, select a layout from the Factory Templates or My Templates folder; or
If you have saved your own page layout templates in a different location, click the button to the right of the Source File field to browse for a file.
- Replace the default File Name with the name of your new layout.
- Click Add.
Tips for working with page layouts
Here are a few tips to get you started with page layouts:
- Before you create a customized page layout, add several of the pre-defined layouts to your project and experiment with them to see if they meet your needs. Flare includes a number of specialized layouts that are designed for double-sided, multi-sectioned books. Several have title pages, first pages for chapters, left and right facing pages, and empty pages for chapters that end on an odd page. No need to reinvent the wheel!
- When designing a book, you may want to include page layouts for a cover page section, TOC, lists of figures and tables, glossary, and index.
- To specify settings for an entire page layout, right-click anywhere in the layout, then select Page Properties.
- The gray frames in page layouts are placeholders for generated content. They are similar to proxies. For more information about proxies, see the Understanding proxies section in my article titled Creating Print-Only Topics.
- To change the size, borders, alignment, or other properties for a frame, right-click the frame and select Properties.
- When working with page headers and footers, note the following:
- To create custom print styles for headers and footers, add those styles to as subclasses of the<p> tag in your style sheet. You may want to create variations for different alignments (such as printHeaderRight and printHeaderLeft).
- To add or edit header or footer content, select the header or footer frame and press F2. Flare may display a prompt asking if you want to pick a content template. The prompt is referring to pre-defined snippets that are used to insert content such as heading variables or page number formats. If you answer Yes, Flare will present a list of available snippets.
- When you edit a header or footer, Flare opens a separate editing pane with its own toolbar and Save button.
- You can designate one page layout as the master page layout for an entire project or for a print target. (Don’t confuse this concept with a master page. Remember: A Flare master page is used for online output, and a page layout or master page layout is for printed output.) I have included relevant help topic references at the end of this article.
Note: Do not use a master page layout setting unless you plan to use only one page layout in your project. If you are using multiple page layouts for your print deliverables, leave all master page layout settings for the project and the print target set to default. You can then use a print-only TOC to map layouts to specific book sections.
Relevant Flare help topics
I could write a book on page layouts, but MadCap has already done that for you. The Flare Help menu includes a number of useful PDF guides (Help > Guides), including the comprehensive Printed Output Guide. You will find a wealth of information on page layouts there.
In addition, I recommend the following help topics:
- About Page Layouts
- Adding Page Layouts
- Adding Pages
- Adding Page Layout Frames
- Editing Pages and Frames
- Associating Master Page Layouts with Projects
- Associating Master Page Layouts with Targets
What’s next?
We have almost reached the end of our print publishing epic! We have our building blocks, and now we need to assemble them. In the next installment, I’ll explain how to assemble a book using a print-only TOC.
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