TOC - page width issue

[RBKearnsJr]

Hello all,

I've an issue where the TOC entries in a generated .pdf are being truncated.  So far, I've played around a bit with page layout and text frame size as well as tab stops but no luck.  Here is a composite showing a screenshot from FM and one from Adobe reader.  Note how the chapter/page is not showing in reader.

Thanks in advance.

regards,

Ben

[LinSims]

This is probably a really stupid question, but what's your zoom level at in the PDF?

[RBKearnsJr]

Not so stupid, first thing I tried was to adjust. the zoom

But alas, it mattered not....

[LinSims]

Huh. So the leader dots go all the way to the right edge of the page?

[RBKearnsJr]

Yes - dots go all the way to edge.

[LinSims]

I don't suppose you'd be willing to email me the FM file in question, would you?

[doug1120]

What settings are you using for page size, margins, tab distances, etc?

My first thought was that you might need to mark the Shrink To Fit checkbox, but unless your settings are wild you shouldn't need to.

[RBKearnsJr]

@doug1120

Would you share a screenshot and perhaps some navigation to these attributes?

thanks

[doug1120]

Sure.

Click File > Save As PDF

Set the filename

Click Save

On the PDF Setup for Selected Files dialog, the Page Size fields (on the Settings tab) control the page size.

You can also try:

Click File > Print Setup

On the Print Setup dialog, click Properties

On the Adobe PDF Document Properties dialog, you can experiment with the settings there. 

You can also click the Edit button next to Default Settings on that tab.  The Standard - Adobe PDF Settings dialog should display.

On the Standard - Adobe PDF Settings dialog you can experiment with any of the settings there, on any of the 6 tabs.

NOTE:  I don't see the Shrink To Fit checkbox that I was expecting, so I was wrong about that.

[Barb Binder]

It looks to me like it is a page size discrepancy, Ben.

Check the Fm document size, and then check the resulting PDF document size. Are you on CC 2019 yet? How (exactly) are you creating the PDF?

I'm guessing you are outputting to a smaller page size than your Fm file. As always, I'm happy to take a look if you want to put your TOC on dropbox and post a link.

~Barb

[RBKearnsJr]

Thanks for suggestions/advice.  Will proceed.

In the meantime, I should mention that this is not a TOC but a LOT and it's the only page that I have issue with.  All other pages are generated fine into .pdf

[Barb Binder]

Hi Ben:

It doesn’t matter if it’s actually an LOT versus a TOC. All the generated files work the same way.

~Barb

[RBKearnsJr]

Hey Barb,

Understood.  It's just that I've been cursed with the need to be anal....

[Barb Binder]

Thanks for my morning laugh.

~Barb

[RBKearnsJr]

I seemed to have come to "a" solution.  Although, rather that using a screw driver on a screw, I may have used a hammer....

I fumbled around with tab stops, page size and text frame size (on body and reference pages).  I would not at all be surprised if there is a better/cleaner way....

B

[Barb Binder]

So did the paper sizes match?

~Barb

[RBKearnsJr]

Hi Barb,

I'm not entirely sure how to determine this but I tried to determine this by creating a .pdf (Save As .pdf from File Menu) for the LOT.

The resulting .pdf file size is 26.9KB.  The FM file in 70.KB).

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

It sounds like the Page Size specified in your PDF setup is different than the Page Size specified in FrameMaker.

Is your PDF page size (in inches) the same as your FrameMaker document?

-Matt

[RBKearnsJr]

Hi Matt,

PDF Setup when saving as .pdf shows W=8.5" and H=11.0"

The LOT is actually set to be wider because some of the paragraph tags used to build it, go way beyond the normal 8.5".  The LOT dimensions (unrotated size) I set are W=700.0 pt (9.72") and H=506 pt (7.02").

I refuse to give up.....  I will keep hammering away with this tool until....

Ben

[LinSims · Accepted solution]

If the LOT is set up to be wider than the page width, and the tags used to format the entries are using that entire width, then that's why the page numbers aren't showing up. You've literally put them beyond the width of the page.

Frame will wrap the long lines and you can set it up so that the second line indents a bit so it's obviously part of the previous line. If a two line entry in the LOT isn't acceptable, then change the font size so your longest line fits.

[RBKearnsJr]

linsims​

Thanks for the reply.  But to be clear the LOT dimensions seen in my previous post along with the Page Size I set (Format>Page Layout>Page Size) to be W=700pt seems to have done the trick and I can see the CH-PG numbers on the right side of the entries.  The one thing I note however is that the right side of the frame

[Barb Binder]

Hi Ben:

700 pts is 9.7 inches. If you output to a PDF with a width of of 8.5 inches, the right side of the page will be truncated.

Also did you finish that last sentence?

~Barb

[RBKearnsJr]

Last Sentence?  I finished it in my mind....

"...right side of the frame goes off the page"  (in the FM pane)

Like mentioned, my "experiments" seemed to have provided what I was looking for.

But, am I creating a Frankenstein monster?

[Barb Binder]

Well Ben, I definitely recommend the defining the paper size in FrameMaker to match the output paper size. Anything else is going to be extra work. Unless you have a compelling  reason to fight the norm, I recommend redesigning the file to confirm to standard practices.

~Barb

[RBKearnsJr]

Noted.

So, in this case where the table entries are too long?  I didn't mess with the output paper size because all of the other pages were "normal" (8.5x11).  Must I follow the suggestion from linsims?