<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <title>How-to guides on speedata Publisher</title>
    <link>/en/howto/</link>
    <description>Recent content in How-to guides on speedata Publisher</description>
    <generator>Hugo</generator>
    <language>en</language>
    <atom:link href="/en/howto/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <item>
      <title>Data preparation: up front or in the layout?</title>
      <link>/en/howto/datapreparation/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/datapreparation/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This question comes up at the start of every project, and its answer shapes everything that follows: in what form does the data enter the Publisher? The closer the structure of the data file is to the finished document, the simpler the layout rules become. The reverse also holds: whoever takes the raw data from PIM, database or ERP unchanged moves all the restructuring work into the layout.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;There are three ways, and they can be combined.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Table, groups or text flow?</title>
      <link>/en/howto/tableorgroups/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/tableorgroups/</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Once the shape of the data is settled (see &lt;a href=&#34;/en/howto/datapreparation/&#34;&gt;Data preparation&lt;/a&gt;), the central presentation decision follows: which way does the content get onto the page? The Publisher knows three basic forms, and most layout problems arise from starting with the wrong one.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Table&lt;span id=&#34;table&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#table&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The table arranges content in rows and columns: all records align to the same columns, breaking across pages happens &lt;a href=&#34;/en/howto/simpletable/&#34;&gt;automatically and row by row&lt;/a&gt;, head and foot repeat. The cells are rectangular boxes that never break internally.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Simple table with automatic breaking</title>
      <link>/en/howto/simpletable/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/simpletable/</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;Task&lt;span id=&#34;task&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#task&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;An article list is to be output as a price list. The list is longer than one page: the Publisher should find the page break itself, the table head should repeat on every page, and a closing line appears below the table.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;figure&gt;&#xA;  &lt;img src=&#34;/img/howto-simpletable-en.png&#34; alt=&#34;The article list runs over two pages, the gray table head repeats on the second page.&#34;  loading=&#34;lazy&#34; /&gt;&#xA;&lt;/figure&gt;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Decision&lt;span id=&#34;decision&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#decision&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The automatic table break is the right approach when three things come together:&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Controlling column widths</title>
      <link>/en/howto/columnwidths/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/columnwidths/</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;Task&lt;span id=&#34;task&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#task&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The article list from the recipe &lt;a href=&#34;/en/howto/simpletable/&#34;&gt;Simple table with automatic breaking&lt;/a&gt; gets a column with application notes: running text next to short technical values. Article number, dimensions, PU and price should stay stable on a single line; the remaining space goes to the application text.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;figure&gt;&#xA;  &lt;img src=&#34;/img/howto-columnwidths-en.png&#34; alt=&#34;Fixed widths for the technical columns, the application text gets the rest and wraps onto several lines.&#34;  loading=&#34;lazy&#34; /&gt;&#xA;&lt;/figure&gt;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Decision&lt;span id=&#34;decision&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#decision&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Without further instructions the Publisher distributes the column widths by itself, based on the contents. That is fine as long as the contents are short and uniform; the article list in the first recipe therefore worked without any width settings. How to recognize that the automatic distribution no longer works:&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Continuation head and continuation note</title>
      <link>/en/howto/continuationhead/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/continuationhead/</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;Task&lt;span id=&#34;task&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#task&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;On a multi-page article list the readers should see that the table continues and where it ends: the first page carries the normal head, the following pages a head with the addition “Continued”. At the end of every page except the last one there is a note “continued on next page”; only the last page shows the closing foot.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;figure&gt;&#xA;  &lt;img src=&#34;/img/howto-continuationhead-en.png&#34; alt=&#34;First page with the normal head, following pages with “Continued”; the note at the bottom is dropped on the last page.&#34;  loading=&#34;lazy&#34; /&gt;&#xA;&lt;/figure&gt;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Breaking complex tables manually</title>
      <link>/en/howto/manualtablebreak/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/manualtablebreak/</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;Task&lt;span id=&#34;task&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#task&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;At the end of each page, the Confixa article list is to point to the actual continuation page: “Continued on page 2”, “Continued on page 3” and so on, with real page numbers. The recipe &lt;a href=&#34;/en/howto/continuationhead/&#34;&gt;Continuation head and continuation note&lt;/a&gt; ends exactly at this limit: with automatic table breaking, such notes are not possible. The same applies to all cases in which continuation pages need their own logic that depends on the break point.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Basic structure of a data sheet</title>
      <link>/en/howto/datasheet/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/datasheet/</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;Task&lt;span id=&#34;task&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#task&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A reusable page scaffold for data sheets and price lists: every page carries the company name, the document title and a rule at the top, and a rule with an address line and the page number at the bottom, all with exact distances. In between lies the type area into which the content flows; the content here is the article list from the &lt;a href=&#34;/en/howto/simpletable/&#34;&gt;first table recipe&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;figure&gt;&#xA;  &lt;img src=&#34;/img/howto-datasheet-en.png&#34; alt=&#34;Head and foot appear on every page with millimeter precision, the table flows into the type area and breaks automatically.&#34;  loading=&#34;lazy&#34; /&gt;&#xA;&lt;/figure&gt;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Table of contents</title>
      <link>/en/howto/tableofcontents/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/tableofcontents/</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;Task&lt;span id=&#34;task&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#task&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Confixa catalog outputs each article group on its own page. A table of contents is to appear at the front: one line per group with its name, material and the page on which the group starts.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;figure&gt;&#xA;  &lt;img src=&#34;/img/howto-tableofcontents-en.png&#34; alt=&#34;Page 1 shows the contents with the page numbers, the catalog follows from page 2 with one group per page.&#34;  loading=&#34;lazy&#34; /&gt;&#xA;&lt;/figure&gt;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Decision&lt;span id=&#34;decision&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#decision&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The fundamental problem of every directory: the page numbers are only known once the catalog has been typeset, but the directory appears at the front. The publisher solves this with multiple runs: one run collects the entries while typesetting and saves them to a file, the next run reads the file at startup and outputs the directory before the content is typeset.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Keyword index</title>
      <link>/en/howto/keywordindex/</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <guid>/en/howto/keywordindex/</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;Task&lt;span id=&#34;task&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#task&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The Confixa catalog from the recipe &lt;a href=&#34;/en/howto/tableofcontents/&#34;&gt;Table of contents&lt;/a&gt; gets an index at the back: for each base material (wood, concrete, masonry, …) it lists the pages with matching articles. The keywords are sorted alphabetically and grouped by first letter, and repeated page numbers are merged.&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&lt;figure&gt;&#xA;  &lt;img src=&#34;/img/howto-keywordindex-en.png&#34; alt=&#34;The catalog pages state the base material for each article, the index at the end leads to the pages.&#34;  loading=&#34;lazy&#34; /&gt;&#xA;&lt;/figure&gt;&#xA;&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&lt;h2&gt;Decision&lt;span id=&#34;decision&#34; style=&#34;position:absolute;margin-top:-5rem;&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&#xA;    &lt;a href=&#34;#decision&#34; class=&#34;heading-anchor&#34; aria-hidden=&#34;true&#34;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;A keyword index differs from a table of contents in two respects, and both simplify or change the approach:&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>
