Difference between revisions of "PDF Writer Custom Tags"

Revision as of 18:14, 2 February 2012

The following custom tags can be included in Web Page Views to manipulate the output when converting to PDF:

List of Custom Tags (pd4ml)

• style="pd4ml-display:none" or style="pd4ml-display:block": Controls whether a HTML element will be included or not included in the PDF. (See example below)
• style="PAGE-BREAK-inside: avoid": Prevents an HTML element from being broken by a page break. Note: If the element is more than a page in length this setting cannot be applied. (See example below)

• <pd4ml:page.break>: inserts a page break at this location

Options:

• ifSpaceBelowLessThan= pixels: allows to suppress the page break if the available space on the current page is more than the specified value.
• htmlWidth=pixels: forces PD4ML to change current htmlWidth (screenWidth) value and to affect HTML-to-PDF scaling factor. “reset” returns htmlWidth to the initial state.
• htmlWidth="reset"
• pageFormat="rotate"
• pageFormat="WxH"
• pageFormat="reset"
• next="even - odd"
• pageCounter=pagenum

• <pd4ml:page.header> </pd4ml:page.header>: Content between tags will be used as the page header. (See example below). Affects all subsequent pages (unless Scope option is defined)

Options:

• scope="scope": explicitly defines pages where the header should appear. Example: scope="odd,5,15-25,45+,skiplast"
• height="height"
• width="width"
• style="associated style info"
• $[page], $[total] and $[title]: inserts current page number, total number of pages, and document title (respectively)

• <pd4ml:page.footer> first page footer. page $[page] of $[total]</pd4ml:page.footer>: Content between tags will be used as the page footer (see Example below). Affects all subsequent pages (unless Scope option is defined)

Options: same as pd4ml:page.header tag.

• <pd4ml:toc>: table of contents.

Options:

• pncorr="number": a correction value to add to page numbers

• <pd4ml:page.break/>: insert this for a PDF page break.

Examples

• The following will define HTML can be added to a Web Page View document to be used as the page header and footer. A different header is defined for the first page using the scope option.

Only the header for the first page will be displayed in the Web Page View HTML view. The header for subsequent pages and the page footer are hidden using <div style="display:none;pd4ml-display:block">

 <pd4ml:page.header scope="1">
   <div  style="margin-top: 30px;margin-left:30px;margin-right:30px;margin-bottom:30px">
    <img src="/files/12345/f51222/HeaderImage.jpg" width="250px">
   </div>
 </pd4ml:page.header>

<div style="display:none;pd4ml-display:block">
 <pd4ml:page.header scope="2+">
   <div  style="margin-top: 30px;margin-left:30px;margin-right:30px;margin-bottom:30px">
     <table width="100%">
      <tr>
       <td><img src="/files/12345/f51222/HeaderImage.jpg" width="250px"></td>
       <td style="text-align:right">page $[page] of $[total]</td>
      </tr>
     </table>
   </div>
 </pd4ml:page.header>

 <pd4ml:page.footer>
  <div  style="margin-top:30px;margin-left:30px;margin-right:30px;margin-bottom:30px">
     <table width="100%">
      <tr>
       <td><img src="/files/12345/f51221/FooterImage.jpg" width="75px"></td>
       <td style="text-align:right"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;color:gray'>SmartSimple Software >></span>
         <span style='font-family:"Arial Black","sans-serif";color:#008386'> <link>www.smartsimple.com</link></span>
      </td>
      </tr>
     </table></div>
 </pd4ml:page.footer>
</div>

• The following will show the table in the HTML view, but it will not be included in the PDF:

<table border="1" style="display:block;pd4ml-display:none">
   <tr><th>Header 1</th><th>Header 2</th></tr>
   <tr><td>row 1, cell 1</td><td>row 1, cell 2</td></tr>
   <tr><td>row 2, cell 1</td><td>row 2, cell 2</td></tr>
</table> 

• The following will prevent a table from spanning 2 pages (unless the table is more than 1 page in length):

<table border="1" style="PAGE-BREAK-inside: avoid">
   <tr><th>Activity</th><th>Owner</th></tr>
[#(?object=activity)
   <tr><td>@subject@</td><td>@owner@</td></tr>
#]
</table> 

Page Format

To generate PDFs in Legal paper format add this tag within the body of the Web Page View:

• <!--Use Legal-->

Special Characters

Most western Latin Unicode characters will be displayed normally. If your PDF will contain non-Latin characters such as Japanese then they have tell PDF writer using TTF (True Type Font) and specify the font should be used. The font must be one that can render the characters correctly. You must also tell the PDF writer to use True Type Font by including the following anywhere with the Web Page View:

• <!--Use TTF-->

For example, to display Japanese characters properly do the following:

1. Put this <!--Use TTF--> somewhere within the web page view
2. Put this <font face="VAL Gothic Regular"> in front of the text that will contain the special/non-Latin characters. (You can define the font within a <style> tag if desired)

See Also

• http://pd4ml.com/html.htm (external website)
• http://pd4ml.com/taglib/pd4ml/tld-summary.html (external website)
• Web Page View