Can the footer repeat on every printed page?

[Shelley Bates]

I need the footer (part of the master page) to repeat on every printed page of a topic.

Our client prints topics for use in the field and the footer contains time/date code (that I found on the internet). This date/time info needs to be printed on all pages of each topic. Most of the topics are 2-3 pages in length when printed from the browser. Is it possible to program the footer to repeat? or add HTML code to the topics to do this?

I'm using RH 9, generating the WebHelp Pro layout for my output. Using IE9 and FireFox9 browsers. I've added a toolbar print button that uses the toolbarscripts01.js script to print the topics. (The script works great and is a HUGE life saver, by the way!! Thanks Peter Grainge!)

Thanks,

Shelley

[Captiv8r]

Hi Shelley

We've already established in a separate thread that WebHelp Pro is not what you should be creating as you aren't using RoboHelp Server. But that really hasn't got anything to do with the footers.

What you likely need to do is to supply a PDF that will be used to print. When RoboHelp creates Printed Documentation it first creates a Word document. And if you have elected to create a PDF, the PDF is created from the Word document. So what you can do is to forego the PDF from RoboHelp and manually tweak the Word document to add the desired footers. Then you could create a PDF from that to supply to the user.

Cheers... Rick

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[Peter Grainge]

You cannot do what you want when printing from the browser as browsers treat the topics as one page for headers and footers.

The nearest you could do if you have hours to spare and the client is willing to pay is use Printed Documentation to create a Word document for every topic, amend the headers and footers as they get lost in the process (See Printed Documentation on my site) and then create a PDF. I doubt that is a real world solution.

I guess you could add a trigger word at appropriate points in the topics (say "shelleyscode") and generate the topics, then do a Find and Replace with some code.

Bear in mind most browsers by default print the date although users may have removed that.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Shelley Bates]

Peter,

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually combined my reply to you in the above reply to Rick. You're right, it's not really feasible to go the way of .PDFs and Word via the printed documentation. I was just hopeful that there might be some code or script that could be added to the Master Pages that might trigger the footer at the time the topic is printed.

Thanks for the help,

Shelley

[Peter Grainge]

Shelley

I have another idea that might help.

You would need to identify the point at which each topic should page break when printed. RoboHelp 9 allows you to insert a page break at that point. See the RoboHelp Tour on my site if you are not familiar with that new feature.

Then immediately above that you can insert some text that will only be in the printed version. See Snippet 132 on my site. The fact that you would be using a script within the print text may be a problem but only testing will ascertain that.

Please post back with the result if you do decide to try it.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[Shelley Bates]

Rick,

Yes, I realize that the output layout doesn't really effect the footers. I wasn't trying to combine the two subjects which is why I asked this question in a separate post.

You're right about the Printed Documentation and manipulating Word documents not being a feasible or desirable option. I never even considered that path. I have experienced the tedium involved in mapping and manipulating the RH output to Word and it's not the solution here.

We considered just going with the date printed by the browser, but the client needs the time printed also. I easily added the necessary code to the Master Pages to accomplish this requirement, so that need is met. The would just like for it to appear on every page.

I knew the possibility was a long shot and a "nice to have" at best. I just thought there "might" be a script that I could add to the Master Page that could trigger adding the footer according to the page breaks that happen at the time the topic is printed. However, since the browser is really in control at that point, I didn't really think it was possible.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and offer your suggestions.

Shelley

[Captiv8r]

LOL, a conundrum as old as help itself. Why can't the printed medium and the electronic medium more easily coexist?