[xep-support] margin text, no. 2

Martin Goik goik at HdM-Stuttgart.de
Tue May 27 02:46:12 PDT 2003


I'm interested in side-floats (text or graphics) in the context of 
double-sided printing. Using Renderx's extension <fo:float 
float="outside"> this appears to be possible.

To exactly define the problem let me try to describe the desired result:

The margin notes shall appear separated from the body text either left 
or right depending on even or odd page numbers. For clarification: 
Ideally these margins should be located in the "fo-region-end" or 
"fo-region-start" area respectively, synchronized with the body text. 
The floats shall not be "embedded" or surrounded by the body text. For a 
"right" page it should look like a two column table where the left (big) 
column contains the "real" body text and the right column contains the 
margin notes, vice-versa for "left" pages.

To achieve this result I generated "dummy" floats trying to mimic a 
two-column table layout switching its colums with respect to even/odd 
page numbers:

<!-- a "real" float -->
<fo:block intrusion-displace="block" width="150mm">
   <fo:float float="outside">
     <fo:block font-size="8pt" width="20mm">This is a margin</fo:block>
   </fo:float>
   This is the main text (the body) which shall be explained by a margin.
</fo:block>

<!-- an empty "dummy" float -->
<fo:block intrusion-displace="block" width="150mm">
   <fo:float float="outside">
     <fo:block font-size="8pt" width="20mm"/>
   </fo:block>
   This is the main text (the body) which shall be explained by a margin.
</fo:block>


The need for these dummies arises from the fact that blocks in the 
document without margin notices shall end (or start respectiveley) at 
the same position as blocks with margin notices, i.e. the text of the 
"real" document body shall always start and end at the same position 
regardless of margin notes.

The main problem (among others) is: If a page break occurs within a body 
text object then the portion of text carried over to the next page 
starts and ends like on the page before instead of changing its 
behaviour due to even/odd page numbering.

This "solution" looks cumbersome and is practically useless, so I'm open 
for any hint to a different strategy.

Regards, Martin
-- 
Martin Goik  Tel.  +49-711-685-8365  http://www.HdM-Stuttgart.de/~goik

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