Re: Formatting chapters in Lout books

[Henrik Martensson]

Thank you for the reply. It was very helpful.


<snipped a bit>

> Also note that a col-width section after a full-width section will
> start on the same page, while a full-width section after a col-width
> section will start on a new page.  Changing this, if at all possible,
> will require changes to the "dsf" idea of page structure.

I can fix that by having my filter insert a page break when a two-column
chapter begins.

>
>
> > * Single column chapters in the format I want to emulate have
> >   sidebar text.  Lout margin notes aren't quite what I need to do
> >   this. Rather, I need to set up a sidebar column with its own,
> >   separate text flow.
> >
> >   Ideally, I would like to be able to tie the start of a particular
> >   sidebar section to a section in the main text flow to ensure that
> >   the sidebar section begins either on the same page, or as close
> >   to it as possible without colliding with other sidebar sections.
> >
> >   Is any of this possible?
>
>
> I'm afraid this will require changes to "dsf" since what you request
> is a different page model, i.e. a sidebar column doesn't accept the
> same type of material that the "main" column.

I have a long way to go before I can fix that. For now I'll just set off my
sidebar material from the main text by putting them in frames. It's not the
standard format for the stuff I'm producing, but it will do until I learn a
bit more about Lout.

<snip>
>
> >   I read somewhere that there is a document package with recursive
section
> >   levels, but that it is not part of the standard Lout distribution.
> >
> >   Is such a package available?
>
> Hmm,  I can't recall hearing about one.

After some digging I found the passage I was weferring to. It's in the
Experts Guide, section 4.4, page 85:

"The DocumentSetup package also contains definitions for subsections in the
same style.
They raise the question of whether Lout is capable of producing subsections
should the user
place @BeginSections, @Section, and @EndSections within a section, and
whether such nesting
could proceed to arbitrary depth. Arbitrary nesting of sections within
sections is available now,
although the numbering would of course be wrong. The author has worked out
definitions which
provide correct numbering to arbitrary depth, with an arbitrary format for
each level. These were
not incorporated into DocumentSetup because the author considers
sub-subsections to be poor
style, and he prefers separate names for the symbols at each level."


The package mentioned here is probably not of interest to most Lout users,
but it would be very useful to me.


/Henrik Mårtensson

---
Henrik Martensson
GNOSIS-Gruppen
Technical Documentation Services
URL: http://www.gnosisgruppen.com/