Re: Independent recto/verso flows?

On Fri, Dec 03 2010 22:51:54 +0000, usernamenumber@gmail.com wrote:
> Suppose I have a book whose source xml contains text and commentary on that
> text (or, if you like, text in two languages). I am wondering if there is a way
> using xslt and xslfo to cause the text to print only on verso pages with the
> corresponding commentary (or translation) on the recto pages. From what I've
> read, I'm afraid that having two flows like this isn't possible, but I wanted
> to ask:
>
> - Can this be done?
>
> - If not, does anyone know of something else that might be better suited?

You could try flow-maps, though you'd have trouble synchronising content
between recto and verso pages.

You could fake it with a double-width page with the content in a
two-column, (two-)page-wide table, but you'd have trouble getting page
numbers on one of the two 'pages' and, probably, have trouble printing
it.

If you are using a XSL formatter that produces and consumes its own area
tree XML, you could do the double-width, two-column table approach,
write out the area tree XML, then massage it into an area tree for a
flow of single-width pages with the right headers and footers.

You could use a double-width page and put the commentary as side-floats
from the main text, but you'd again have the page number and printing
problems.

This is in the requirements for XSL FO 2.0 [1], but we're not there yet.

Regards,


Tony Graham                         Tony.Graham@MenteithConsulting.com
Director                                  W3C XSL FO SG Invited Expert
Menteith Consulting Ltd                               XML Guild member
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[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xslfo20-req/#N66314

Received on Monday, 6 December 2010 18:14:34 UTC