Implementing "This page Intentionally left blank"

[Robert Johnson]

I'm working in a regulated environment, and we have a requirement to label blank pages as intentionally blank.  

I've looked around and found a couple of requests for this functionality in the OT, but the latest that I've seen was a proposal to add the ability to configure it in the custom plugin generator (http://dita-generator-hrd.appspot.com/pdf-plugin/).  But the feature does not appear to have been added.  

I've been customizing a plugin using DITA for Print (GREAT resource!  Thanks Leigh!) and an FO reference, but this one has me stumped.  Evidently it requires more coding than immediately meets the eye (I'm still a novice when it comes to customizing the OT).

So what do I need to do to implement this functionality?  

Thanks for any help.

Bob Johnson

[que...@gmail.com]

See blank pages here:

http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/fo.html

or conditional-page-master reference in the XSL-FO spec:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xsl/#fo_conditional-page-master-reference

Note:
A "blank page" is a page generated under (2) of the sub-condition corresponding to "blank-or-not-blank" above. This has nothing to do with whether the page appears completely blank to the reader.

Kendall

[Robert Johnson]

As I mentioned, I've been using an FO reference (Lovel, FO Developer's Handbook), so I'm aware of the blank-or-not-blank property.  

In fact, the DITA OT already includes conditional code using this property.  Looking at the code, it appeared that what I had to do was create a static-content region with the "intentionally left blank" message, and modify the simple page masters of the "-last" pages to use that.  

But it does not work for me.  It appears that there is more to it than that.  

In another location, I saw a mention that more extensive code is required to make this work.  I'm trying to find out what that additional code needs to do.  

Bob

[que...@gmail.com]

"Does not work" is ambiguous. If I had a nickle for every time I've read discussions where people have to refine what "does not work" means, I would have tens of dollars.

Did you try processing the xsl-fo here:

http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/fo.html#fo-blank-pages

Maybe your test didn't include force-page-count="end-on-even". You might want to duplicate the page-sequence element in that example so that you see text that follows the page that someone intended to be blank.

Really the page should say "We had intended for this page to be blank, but then we put this text on it".

Kendall

[que...@gmail.com]

I think I was a little flippant sounding. Sorry.

You are really asking XSL-FO questions. There are XSL-FO lists. Also you could type "xsl-fo intentionally left blank" into the search engine of your choice.

Dave Pawson has many FAQs, one is about XSL:

http://www.dpawson.co.uk/xsl/

I mention it because for me it was important to get an understanding of how page layout works instead of finding a new one-off procedure for each task I need to do.

Kendall