A

Anonymous

Answered

"Page intentionally left blank."

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
January 10, 2012
6 replies
34534 views

I am using FrameMaker 9.0 on Windows, and I'm trying to add the statement "Page intentionally left blank" on the last page of my chapters. I've found some information online about how to do it, but not step-by-step instructions. I tried each of the solutions (adding a reference frame in the reference pages, adding a new master page), but for some reason, I can't get this to work. I also tried just manually typing the line in, but that's risky because I'll probably forget some in the final edit and/or I'll add/delete text and the pagination will change.

Sorry if this has been posted before. I did a search and couldn't find it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Formatting and numbering

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer lsk2002

Hi meganew,

I set mine up on a reference page. Created a page size reference frame (See below for instructions on a ref frame.) and then a text box (of course, it has to be placed in the frame correctly for your format.) in it with "This page intentionally left blank." Then created a para format called blank page. In the para designer, click on the advanced icon and select the drop down arrow beside Frame Below pgf. Whatever you have named the frame on the reference page will be in the drop down menu. Click on it and apply. Your blank page should show up.

Hope this helps!!

To create a reference frame:

With the Reference page displayed, select Graphics > Tools.
Click (Place a Graphic Frame) to place a graphic frame.
Draw a graphic frame the size needed. I have used reference pages for several things.

After you complete the frame, the Frame Name dialog box appears. Name your frame....

A

Anonymous

Thanks again for all of your comments (and the humor!). I've been a writer/editor for almost 20 years, and this is the first time I've had to add "Page intentionally left blank." I don't like it, but when you work for the military, you do what they want... Pretty sure "here's your sign" wouldn't work for my purposes, but I like it better! As Error 7103 pointed out, as soon as I put the text on the page, it's no longer blank!

I also use headers/footers/page numbers on each page, but when in France...

Thanks again!

Megan

Michael314

Inspiring

Megan,

For the military, huh? Then the sign, er, notice should be:

Page intentionally infiltrated by misleading counter-intelligence.

If anyone asks what that means, tell them it's classified.

Yours,

Michael F.

Here's Your Sign

P

peter minneapolis

Participating Frequently

Has anyone been able to successfully make a case with TPTB for using the magazine technique of ending articles with a graphic symbol, on the last-populated chapter page?

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Michael314

Inspiring

meganew,

I looked at my copy of the Adobe Framemaker User Guide and they use completely blank pages for even last pages. How is that for a model? Even one of my technical writing books uses completely blank even last pages.

A few years ago, I worked at an electronics company that required that "blank page" format. A new VP looked at it and said "Get rid of those dumb statements." At which I said hooray, for that was my opinion from the outset, but I got voted down by people who thought we needed to do this "for the customer."

At my current job, I simply insert a page break (Special -> Break -> Top of Page) and let the headers and footers continue.

At the previous job, I created a master page that was blank except for the main content text box. In the center of the page I inserted a text frame with the blank page wording. Whenever I needed a blank left page, I'd apply the blank master page.

If you can rally enough support, the best solution is to talk them out of it.

Yours,

Michael F

=======

Bob_Niland

Community Expert

... the best solution is to talk them out of it.

I suspect that in many cases the TPILB is required by government or industry document specification.

And in many cases where it's just enterprise spec, it's memorialized in a glossy printed Style Guide that can't get changed without Board of Directors approval.

But sure, otherwise just ask local management: "Have you ever asked any actual customers if they think this is necessary?"

Michael314

Inspiring

>>But sure, otherwise just ask local management: "Have you ever asked any actual customers if they think this is necessary?"

Error,

Right on! I remember asking proponents of the blank page notice that same question, and the answer was something like, we haven't done that in years but we think customers need us to tell them where the chapter ends.

This tag line was probably invented by the same people who created other "helpful" sayings like "Remove wrapper before eating."

Yours,

Michael F

=======

A

Anonymous

Thank you both for your great responses. It's very nice having so many knowledgeable people on this site.

Since so many of us have had to find workarounds, it would be nice if there was a template that included this as a master page or reference page. Maybe I'll post that on the Requested Features page (or whatever that forum is called).

Thanks again!

Megan

Bob_Niland

Community Expert

It would be nice if the MasterPageMappingTable feature supported a notation for empty pages in the Paragraph Tag Name column, say: "\blank" (or some other illegal or unwise name never used for a real para fmt name). Then we could tell Frame to map TPILB Master Pages whenever a page would be content-free.

By the way, I tested my hack, with the addition of setting up both Left.Used and Right.Used. It automatically handles both any trailing blank page at the end of the file, and any blanks within the flow resulting from paras with Start on "Top of Left Page" or "Top of Right Page".

The AMP seems to take a little longer to run, but it's worth it to eliminate the need to look for stray unneeded manually inserted TPILBs.

I doubt that I will use my hack, because we don't bother to put TPILBs on normal blank pages. They have a header, footer and page #, which is ample advice to the reader that the page isn't blank due to toner run-out or paper misfeed.

______

PS - There is a caveat to the hack. Mapping other page layouts (like chapter start) requires that the triggering para fmt be the first Flow A text on the page. Frame gives priority to the first format found on the page that appears in the MasterPageMappingTable. The order of that table appears to have no effect.

M

max_drawdown

Inspiring

@Error7103,

Great idea. Thanks for posting.

I'm testing it here. It works in most cases.

Anomalies that I see are:

A table is the last content in a file and continues across a page boundary. The last page in the file, with the continued part of the table, is mapped to Left (not Left.Used). The table anchor paratag and table title paratag appear in the mapping table. This consistent with ana030's results.
Generated files, such as a TOC. Same as before, the paratags for the (apparently) first paras in flow A on each page are in the mapping table, but no luck: Left (not Left.Used) and Right (not Right.Used) are being mapped.

Definitely worth more testing here. So far I'm stumped on these two anomalies.

Best regards,

L

lsk2002Correct answer

Inspiring

Hi meganew,

I set mine up on a reference page. Created a page size reference frame (See below for instructions on a ref frame.) and then a text box (of course, it has to be placed in the frame correctly for your format.) in it with "This page intentionally left blank." Then created a para format called blank page. In the para designer, click on the advanced icon and select the drop down arrow beside Frame Below pgf. Whatever you have named the frame on the reference page will be in the drop down menu. Click on it and apply. Your blank page should show up.

Hope this helps!!

To create a reference frame:

With the Reference page displayed, select Graphics > Tools.
Click (Place a Graphic Frame) to place a graphic frame.
Draw a graphic frame the size needed. I have used reference pages for several things.

After you complete the frame, the Frame Name dialog box appears. Name your frame....

Bob_Niland

Community Expert

But then the page wouldn't be blank

All seriousness aside, there are (as usual with Frame), multiple ways to do this.

But before getting into details, do you always need a blank page at end of chapter, or are you just trying to deal with the blank that can result from the "Make Page count Even" on save?

And is each chapter a separate .fm file?

A

Anonymous

LOL.

I'm only trying to deal with the blank page that results from Make Page Count Even. Each chapter, appendix, etc. are separate .fm files. I found some posts now called "Assign Master pages to EndPages, and it sounds like the best solution is to purchase a plug-in. But, I can't do that because I'm working on a secure system.

Thanks again!

O

oatsybob

New Participant

Hy Meganew,

sorry for the late answer.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Your procedure , described in more posts, is wonderful. It work properly .

Now we have the left right page automatically added to the documents when it is necessary.

We have only an error during the document compilation but it depends on our software (a kind of "documents compare" different and more complex than the Framemakers's one).

We are solving it.

Thank you very much for your valid cooperation.

Kind regards.

Luca

Same question, different problem. Our military contractor requires that the blank page be completely blank - no page number - nothing. However, the previous page must indicate that the next page is blank, as in 2-1 (2-2 blank) (in the footer/page number). I can't figure out how to advance the page number (2-2). We inherited this document, and the previous owner had a different master page for every page that required this notification (over 100 master pages!). There's got to be a better way, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

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