Re: XSL-FO: Column-specific markers

On Thu, October 7, 2010 3:39 pm, Matthew Nehrbass wrote:
> Would it be possible to have markers that appear at the top of each column
> in a multi-column fo:region-body?
>
> What I am hoping to do is something like a table of contents, split into
> multiple columns. There would be several 'main' topics, with any number of
> child topics below them. The topics would appear in alphabetical order,
> and flow from one column to the next. Some of the main topics would have
> enough children to take up more than one column. At the top of each column
> would be the first main topic in that column, whether it was starting, or
> continued from the last page/column.

You could put the ToC in a table, or each section in the ToC in a separate
table, and use fo:retrieve-table-marker [1] to retrieve the section title.

If there is no difference between the first appearance of the section
title and its repetition at the top of the following column(s), then you
could just put the section title in the header of the table for the
section.

> I know this can be done by page, but I just need it to work by column as
> well.

The working draft for XSL FO 2.0 includes new work for different table
headers/footers at different boundaries [2].  It would be useful to the
XSL FO subgroup if you could review the WD and provide feedback [3] on how
well it would help with your problem.

There are additional requirements for XSL FO 2.0 for retrieving markers
[4] and text before and after a break [5] that are not yet in a public
working draft, but it's still possible to make comments on any of the
requirements in advance of there being something for them in a Working
Draft.

Regards,


Tony Graham                         Tony.Graham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Director                                  W3C XSL FO SG Invited Expert
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[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xsl11/#fo_retrieve-table-marker
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/xslfo20/#table-heads-and-feet-on-boundaries
[3] http://www.w3.org/XML/2008/01/xsl-fo-bugzilla.html
[4] http://www.w3.org/TR/xslfo20-req/#generalized-markers
[5] http://www.w3.org/TR/xslfo20-req/#N66479