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biker_jr
Participant
February 13, 2010
Question

Controling Page Breaks through EDD

  • February 13, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 618 views

Hi All,

I'm authoring DITA in FrameMaker using the DITA-FMx plugin and wonder to what extent it's possible to control page breaks (keep withprevious/next) through the EDD? For example, I need to keep everything that belongs to the same <step> together (which are usually <cmd> and <info>).

The paragraph format for <cmd> is called NextStep. In the ideal world, I would need to modify settings of this format and define "Keep with Next" in the template. This would solve the issue. However, due to some business limitations, I'm not allowed to make in any changes in formats themselves. It seems like the only place where I could do it is the EDD.

In the EDD, I would have to define the context rule for <cmd>, something like :

...
Use paragraph format: NextStep


This would apply NextStep for the <cmd> contents. Then I need to dynamically modify NextStep and override its Pagination settings. As far as I can understand, I can do this using the format changle list. However, I can't apply BOTH a paragraph AND a format change list to modify the specified
format for thje same context rule?  I can either say "Use paragraph format" or "Use format change list", right?

Is yes, is there any alternative way to ahieve what I need without altering the format itself?

Many thanks in advance!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
Legend
February 14, 2010

Biker,

You can have either a pgf fmt reference or a implicit format change list in a single context rule. But you can have as many context rules as you like. Also, you can specify a default pgf fmt before all text formatting rules start.

I use this to specify pagination overrides depending on more complex contexts.

- Michael

V
Van Kurtz
Inspiring
February 15, 2010

To emphasize Michael's point about multiple context rules, the context rules are applied in order. So, it is not only possible to apply a default paragraph format and then override all or part of it in a context rule, a subsequent context rule can override all or part of the first context rule. The feature allows you to do a lot of format variations within the EDD, depending upon all sorts of element structures in different situations. In fact, I do almost all my formatting in the EDD.

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